Axel Munthe Quotations

Pasteur himself was absolutely fearless. Anxious to secure a sample of saliva straight from the jaws of a rabid dog, I once saw him with the glass tube held between his lips draw a few drops of the deadly saliva from the mouth of a rabid bull-dog, held on the table by two assistants, their hands protected by leather gloves.

Christ - an anarchist who succeeded.

A dog gladly admits the superiority of his master over himself, accepts his judgment as final, but, contrary to what dog-lovers believe, he does not consider himself as a slave. His submission is voluntary, and he expects his own small rights to be respected.

What you keep for yourself, you lose. What you give away, you keep forever

The soul needs more space than the body.

My home shall be open for the sun and the wind and the voices of the sea - like a Greek temple - and light, light, light everywhere!

I was not a good doctor, my studies had been too rapid, my hospital training too short, but there is not the slightest doubt that I was a successful doctor. What is the secret of success? To inspire confidence. What is confidence? ... I do not know, I only know that it cannot be acquired by book reading, nor by the bedside of our patients. It is a magic gift granted by birth-right to one man and denied to another. The doctor who possesses this gift can almost raise the dead

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts.

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself.

The wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. He is in front of it.

What you keep to yourself you lose, what you give away, you keep forever.