Alexis Carrel Quotations

The quality of life is more important than life itself.

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.

All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need to take advice and to receive help from other people.

A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.

The love of beauty in its multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.

Religion brings to man an inner strength, spiritual light, and ineffable peace.

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

Hard conditions of life are indispensable to bringing out the best in human personality.

Like hatred, jealousy is forbidden by the laws of life because it is essentially destructive.

The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one's day and every night to examine the results obtained.

Those who desire to rise as high as our human condition allows, must renounce intellectual pride, the omnipotence of clear thinking, belief in the absolute power of logic.

Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.

All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.

Comforts and syphilis are the greatest enemies of mankind.

Everyone makes a greater effort to hurt other people than to help himself.

In man, the things which are not measurable are more important than those which are measurable.

To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know

The atmosphere of libraries, lecture rooms and laboratories is dangerous to those who shut themselves up in them too long. It separates us from reality like a fog.

Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for comprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.

Those who do not know how to fight worry die young.

The modern city consists of...dark, narrow streets full of gasoline fumes, coal dust, and toxic gasses, torn by the noise...

Scientific civilisation has destroyed the soul of the world.

Enormous amounts of money are spent for publicity. As a result, large quantities of alimentary and pharmaceutical products, at the least useless, and often harmful, have become a necessity for civilized men.

...the influence of the factory upon the physiological and mental state of the workers has been completely neglected.

Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for apprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.

...in recognition of his work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood-vessels and organs.

More than half of all great remedies known to medical history have come from empiricists...'irregulars'...of no or little scientific training. There is no reason to believe that conditions have essentially changed.

Life leaps like a geyser for those willing to drill through the rock of inertia.

To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard prudently against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us.

As to virtue . . . it is an act of the will, a habit which increases the quantity, intensity and quality of life. It builds up, strengthens and vivifies personality.

The secret of life is to be found in life itself, in the full organic, intellectual and spiritual activities of our body.

If the doctor of today does not become the dietician of tomorrow, the dietician of today will become the doctor of tomorrow.

Intelligence is almost useless to the person whose only quality it is.

Prayer is a cry of distress, a demand for help, a hymn of love.

The best way of increasing the [average] intelligence of scientists would be to reduce their number.

It seems that the increased number of scientific workers, their being split up into groups whose studies are limited to a small subject, and over-specialization have brought about a shrinking of intelligence. There is no doubt that the quality of any human group decreases when the number of the individuals composing this group increases beyond certain limits... The best way to increase the intelligence of scientists would be to decrease their number.

Prayer, like radium, is a luminous and self-generating form of energy.

Prayer, the basic exercise of the spirit, must be actively practiced in our private lives. The neglected soul of the human being must be made strong enough to assert itself once more. For if the power of prayer is again released and used in the lives of common men and women; if the spirit declares its aims clearly and boldly, there is yet hope that our prayers for a better world will be answered.

When we pray we link ourselves with an inexhaustible motive power.

One must train oneself, by small and frequent efforts, to dominate one's feelings.

Logic never attracts men to the point of carrying them away.

There are no watertight compartments in our inmost nature.

Patients have been cured almost instantaneously of...lupus...,cancer ...,ulcers..., tuberculosis ...In a few seconds, at most a few hours, the symptoms disappear and the anatomic lesions mend. The miracle is characterized by extreme acceleration of the normal process of healing.

Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men lifted out of sickness by the power of prayer. It is the only power in the world that overcomes the laws of nature.

The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrable as that of secreting glands. Its results can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy, greater intellectual vigor, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human relationship.

Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind, and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.

Those who don't learn to fight worry, die young.

Man offers himself to God. He stands before Him like the canvas before the painter or the marble before the sculptor. At the same time he asks for His grace, expresses his needs and those of his brothers in suffering. Such a type of prayer demands complete renovation. The modest, the ignorant, and the poor are more capable of this self-denial than the rich and the intellectual.

Jesus knows our world. He does not disdain us like the God of Aristotle. We can speak to Him and He answers us. Although He is a person like ourselves, He is God and transcends all things.

The search for God is indeed, an entirely personal undertaking.... the most audacious adventure that one can dare.

Discipline brings us effort, sacrifice and suffering. Later it brings us something of an inestimable value: something of which those who live only for pleasure, profit or amusement will always be deprived. This peculiar indefinable joy which one must have felt oneself to understand is the sign with which life marks its moment of triumph.

Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.

In joy or sorrow, health or sickness, prosperity or the reverse, the effort must still continue. One must rise after every fall and gradually acquire courage, faith, the will to succeed and the capacity to love.

The cell is immortal. It is merely the fluid in which it floats that degenerates. Renew this fluid at regular intervals, give the cells what they require for nutrition, and as far as we know, the pulsation of life can go on forever.

Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate....It supplies us with a flow of sustaining power in our daily lives.

It is faith, and not reason, which impels men to action... Intelligence is content to point out the road, but never drives us along it.

If you make a habit of sincere prayer, your life will be very noticeably and profoundly altered. Prayer stamps with its indelible mark our actions and demeanor. A tranquillity of bearing, a facial and bodily repose, are observed in those whose inner lives are thus enriched. Within the depths of consciousness a flame kindles. And man sees himself. He discovers his selfishness, his silly pride, his fears, his greeds, his blunders. He develops a sense of moral obligation, intellectual humility. Thus begins a journey of the soul toward the realm of grace...

Men grow when inspired by a high purpose, when contemplating vast horizons. The sacrifice of oneself is not very difficult for one burning with the passion for a great adventure.