Phineas Parkhurst Quimby Quotes

“A sick man is like a criminal cast into prison for disobeying some law that man has set up. I plead his case, and if I get the verdict, the criminal is set at liberty. If I fail, I lose the case.

His own judgment is his judge, his feelings are his evidence. If my explanation is satisfactory to the judge, you will give me the verdict. This ends the trial, and the patient is released.”

“As man begins to reason from another starting point, different results are accomplished.”

“Disease is the misery of our belief, happiness is the health of our wisdom, so that man's happiness or misery depends on himself. Now, as our misery comes from our belief, and not from the thing believed, it is necessary to be on the watch, so as not to be deceived by false guides.

Sensation contains no intelligence or belief, but is a mere disturbance of the matter, called agitation, which produces mind, and is ready to receive the seed of error. Ever since man was created, there has been an element called error which has been busy inventing answers for every sensation.”

“Disease is what follows an opinion, it is made up of mind diverted by error, and Truth is the destruction of this opinion.”

“Doctors and priests are the foundation of more misery than all other evils, for they have a strong hold on the minds of the people by their deception and cant.

They claim all the virtue and wisdom of the nation, and have so deceived the people that their claims are acknowledged in war and peace.”

“Doctors take the bodily evidence as the disease. Disease is itself an impudent opinion. He throws off the feelings of the sick and imparts to them his own which are perfect health, and his explanation destroys their feelings or disease.

He is like a captain who knows his business and feels confident in a storm, and his confidence sustains the crew and ship when both would be lost if the captain should give way to his fears.”

“Every man is a part of each and our senses are attached to both. So, when a man speaks of himself as a man, he is in matter; but when he speaks a scientific truth, he is out of matter and so far, equal to God.

So, man’s investigations are but an imitation of wisdom’s experiments for his own happiness. And man, not wanting to be outdone by his father tries to imitate what he sees and hears; this makes man a kind of progressive being.

Man invents language from the fact that he cannot be satisfied to let God or wisdom dictate his acts, so he invents language to explain his wisdom. It has been said that language was invented to deceive others.

In some cases, I have no doubt but the world thinks it does but wisdom gives it another direction; or language acts to undeceive and it often exposes our ignorance.”

“Everyone is made of matter, and matter is continually going through a chemical change. This change is life, not wisdom, but life, like vegetable or mineral life.

Every idea is matter, so of course it contains life in the name of something that can be changed. Motion, or change, is life. Ideas have life. A belief has life, or matter; for it can be changed. Now, all the aforesaid make up man; and all this can be changed.”

“God is the first great cause of everything, the answer of every question, the truth of every problem.”

“Happiness and misery are in our beliefs.”

“Human misery universally arises from some error that man admits as true. We confound our fears with the idea feared, and place the evil in the thing seen or believed. Here is a great error, for we never see what we are afraid of.”

“I found I was the very idea I was looking for.”

“I make war with what comes in contact with a person's health or happiness, believing that God made everything good.”

“It may seem strange to those in health that our beliefs affect us. The fact is, there is nothing of us but belief.

It is the whole capital and stock in trade of man. It is all that can be changed, and embraces everything man has made or ever will make.”

“Man is made of opinions — of truth and error; and his life is a warfare like all other lives before him. Man goes on developing error upon error till he is buried in his own belief.

It is the office of wisdom to explain the phenomena in man called disease, to show how it is made, and how it can be unmade. This is as much a science as it is to know how to decompose a piece of metal.”

“Man is made up of truth and belief; and if he is deceived into a belief that he has, or is liable to have a disease, the belief is catching and the effect follows it.”

“Money, it is said, is the root of all evil, but this is not the case.

Pride and selfishness and love of power are the evils; this creates the desire for money.”

“Science is the voice of God, opinions that of man.”

“Talking about a theory is like talking about a science we do not understand; it contains no wisdom.”

“The light of wisdom will light up the dark dens of superstition.”

“The mind is like the water, our bodies the vessels and our wisdom the pilot.”

“The mind is matter in solution and matter is mind in form.”

“This I do partly mentally and partly by talking till I correct the wrong impressions and establish the truth, and the truth is the cure.”

“Thus, man is a mere lump of clay in the hands of blind guides and whatever they say to the people they believe.

Their beliefs disturb their minds and the doctors sow the seed of disease which they nurse till it grows to a belief, then comes the misery.”

“Whatever we believe, that we create. Whatever opinion we put into a thing, that we take out of it.”

“My theory: The trouble is in the mind, for the body is only the house for the mind to dwell in.

If your mind has been deceived by some invisible enemy into a belief, you have put it into the form of a disease, with or without your knowledge. By my theory or truth I come in contact with your enemy and restore you to health and happiness.”

“One thing is certain: the time will come when the opinions of priests and doctors must give way to the science of life; for their opinions lead to death and misery, and the science of life is health and happiness.”

“Science is wisdom reduced to practice.”

“The silkworm spins out his life, and, wrapping himself in his labor, dies.”

“Now, I stand alone on this rock, fighting the errors of this world, and establish the science of life by my works. What is my mode of warfare? With the axe of truth I strike at the root of every tree of error and hew it down, so that there shall not be one error in man showing itself in the form of disease.”