Zeno of Citium (333 BCE-264 BCE)

Fate is the endless chain of causation, whereby things are; the reason or formula by which the world goes on.

Books from Alibris: Zeno of Citium

Abul Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) (936-1013)

Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas al-Zahravi (known in the west as Abulcasis) was born in 936 A.D. in Zahra in the neighborhood of Cordova. He became one of the most renowned surgeons of the Muslim era and was physician to King Al-Hakam-II of Spain. After a long medical career, rich with significant original contribution, he died in 1013 A.D.

He is best known for his early and original breakthroughs in surgery as well as for his famous Medical Encyclopedia called Al-Tasrif, which is composed of thirty volumes covering different aspects of medical science. The more important part of this series comprises three books on surgery, which describe in detail various aspects of surgical treatment as based on the operations performed by him, including cauterization, removal of stone from the bladder, dissection of animals, midwifery, stypics, and surgery of eye, ear and throat. He perfected several delicate operations, including removal of the dead foetus and amputation.

Al-Tasrif was first translated by Gherard of Cremona into Latin in the Middle Ages. It was followed by several other editors in Europe. The book contains numerous diagrams and illustrations of surgical instruments, in use or developed by him, and comprised a part of the medical curriculum in European countries for many centuries. Contrary to the view that the Muslims fought shy of surgery, Al-Zahravi's Al-Tasrif provided a monumental collection for this branch of applied science.

Al-Zahravi was the inventor of several surgical instruments, of which three are notable: (i) an instrument for internal examination of the ear, (ii) an instrument for internal inspection of the urethra, and (iii) and instrument for applying or removing foreign bodies from the throat. He specialized in curing disease by cauterization and applied the technique to as many as 50 different operations.

In his book Al-Tasrif, Al-Zahravi has also discussed the preparation of various medicines, in addition to a comprehensive account of surgical treatment in specialized branches, whose modern counterparts are E.N.T., Ophthalmology, etc. In connection with the preparation of medicines, he has also described in detail the application of such techniques as sublimation and decantation. Al-Zahravi was also an expert in dentistry, and his book contains sketches of various instruments used thereof, in addition to a description of various important dental operations. He discussed the problem of non-aligned or deformed teeth and how to rectify these defects. He developed the technique of preparing artificial teeth and of replacement of defective teeth by these. In medicine, he was the first to describe in detail the unusual disease, hemophilia.

There can be no doubt that Al-Zahravi influenced the field of medicine and surgery very deeply and the principles laid down by him were recognized as authentic in medical science, especially surgery, and these continued to influence the medical world for five centuries. According to Dr. Cambell (History of Arab Medicine), his principles of medical science surpassed those of Galen in the European medical curriculum. [Adapted from Personalities Nobel]

Books from Alibris: al-Zahrawi (Albucasis)

Xenophon (444 BCE-357 BCE)

Wherever magistrates were appointed from among those who complied with the injunctions of the laws, Socrates considered the government to be an aristocracy.

Books from Alibris: Xenophon

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

Humor is not a mood but a way of looking at the world. So if it is correct to say that humor was stamped out in Nazi Germany, that does not mean that people were not in good spirits, or anything of that sort, but something much deeper and more important.

Books from Alibris: Ludwig Wittgenstein

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.

Books from Alibris: Alfred North Whitehead

Thucydides (c 460 BCE-c 400 BCE)

Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.

Books from Alibris: Thucydides

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old.

Books from Alibris: Henry David Thoreau

Thales of Miletus (634 BCE-546 BCE)

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.

Books from Alibris: Thales

Charles Taylor (1931-)

"Charles Taylor is without question one of the two or three most important social philosophers in the world today," said Keith Topper, associate professor of communication studies. "Combining a profound moral imagination with acute sensitivity to the diverse ways in which human beings find meaning in their world, he has fundamentally altered the manner in which philosophers, social scientists and many sectors of the educated public think about issues of politics, ethics, religion, secularization, cultural pluralism, human identity and human understanding."

Books from Alibris: Charles Taylor

al-Tabari (838-970)

This accomplished Hakim was the tutor of the unparalleled physician Zakariya al-Razi. Luck favored the disciple more than the teacher in terms of celebrity. As compared to Razi people know very little about his teacher Ali. Ali Bin Rabban's surname was Abu al-Hasan, the full name being Abu al-Hasan Ali Bin Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. Born in 838 A.D. his father Sahl hailed from a respectable Jew family. The nobility and sympathy inherent in his very nature soon endeared him to his countrymen so much so that they used to call him Rabban which implies "my leader". - Malaspina Biography

Books from Alibris: Ali Ibn Rabban al-Tabari

Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677)

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

Books from Alibris: Spinoza

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration. Like the unknown principle of animal life, it frequently restores health and vigour to the constitution, in spite, not only of the disease, but of the absurd prescriptions of the doctor. - The Wealth of Nations, Book II Chapter III

Books from Alibris: Adam Smith

Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

For the division of labor demands from the individual an ever more one-sided accomplishment, and the greatest advance in a one-sided pursuit only too frequently means dearth to the personality of the individual.

Books from Alibris: Georg Simmel

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE)

Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.

Books from Alibris: Seneca

Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)

The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived. Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist.

Books from Alibris: Erwin Schrodinger

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

Books from Alibris: Schopenhauer

Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.

Books from Alibris: Jean Paul Sartre

George Santayana (1863-1952)

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience. from The Life of Reason, Volume 1 (1905)

Books from Alibris: George Santayana

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

Books from Alibris: Bertrand Russell

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

Books from Alibris: Jean-Jacques Rousseau