“ As a general rule, no man has a right to tell another by word or look that he is going to die. ”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1860). copy citation
Author | Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. |
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Source | The Professor at the Breakfast-Table |
Topic | words rules |
Date | 1860 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2665/2665-h/2665-h.htm |
Context
“If you are making choice of a physician, be sure you get one, if possible, with a cheerful and serene countenance. A physician is not—at least, ought not to be—an executioner; and a sentence of death on his face is as bad as a warrant for execution signed by the Governor. As a general rule, no man has a right to tell another by word or look that he is going to die. It may be necessary in some extreme cases; but as a rule, it is the last extreme of impertinence which one human being can offer to another. “You have killed me,” said a patient once to a physician who had rashly told him he was incurable.”
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