Alexis Carrel Quotes

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

The quality of life is more important than life itself.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Comforts and syphilis are the greatest enemies of mankind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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