The Physician (2013) · 14 quotes
I don't want to treat warts all my life. I don't want to pull teeth and sell horse piss as a miracle tonic. I want to learn how to cure cataracts, side sickness and all other diseases.
Rob Cole
May the Lord have mercy upon me. Bless me in my long and dangerous journey. Let not the waves engulf me, nor sea monsters devour me. Let not bandits slit my throat, or wolves eat me alive. Let me not starve or get lost in the dark woods or cold mountains. And please let Jesus forgive me, that I shall deny my faith and soil myself with sin, to serve your creation and glory.
Rob Cole
Have you ever wondered what's inside? In here.
Flesh, blood, bones. Your soul, if you have one.
Rob Cole
And down here? [pointing to the right side of his abdomen]
More flesh, more blood.
Rob Cole
So does side-sickness [appendicitis] come from bad blood?
I don't care if if comes from my ass. Can't cure it, can't charge for it.
Have you never wondered what's inside? You've never looked?
I can slice you up after breakfast.
Rob Cole
No, I mean like in dead people.
Don't you ever talk about that again. Never! Do you know what the Church does to necromancers? Burn them at the stake.
What you've done to my master's eyes? [referring to performing an eye surgery for cataracts] Where did you learn it?
In a place called Ispahan.
Rob Cole
Ispahan. Is that beyond London?
Is that beyond London? Is he serious? There [in pointing to a map of the known world]
Rob Cole
What is it? [referring to the parchment with a map]
The World.
Rob Cole
The World?
Look. We are here. This is London. And here - here is Ispahan. The greatest physician the world has ever seen teaches there. Ibn Sina. There is no one on earth that can match him for knowledge and wisdom.
Rob Cole
Ibn...
Ibn Sina.
Ibn Sina. Can he... cure the side-sickness?
Ibn Sina can cure many illnesses.
Rob Cole
How long would it take me to get there
Over a year. First you have to go the south coast of England, then you cross the Channel... then you walk through France and take a sailboat along the coast of Africa. Then you arrive in Egypt... and here... you will be killed.
Rob Cole
Why?
From this point, the Muslim world begins. Arabia, Persia. But Christians have been banished from everywhere, only we Jews are tolerated. My condolences. You worship the wrong God.
Ibn Sina
You seem... more interested in medicine than my other patients.
Rob Cole
I've come to be a student of Ibn Sina.
Ibn Sina
Have you now?
Rob Cole
I've been told he's the greatest healer in all the world.
Ibn Sina
No he's not that great. Quite ordinary, really.
Rob Cole
Do you know him?
Ibn Sina
A little better each day.
Rob Cole
Could you speak to him for me? [in order to get accepted into Ibn Sina's medical school]
Ibn Sina
You rest now.
Rob Cole
The plague doesn't care if you're rich or poor, common man or nobleman or head of state. But it's reached Ispahan. No wall, however thick, will stop it.
Are you threatening me, Englishman?
Rob Cole
Not a threat, my lord. A promise.
Rob Cole
You have all these virgins waiting for you. How many was it again?
Karim
Some say 99, some say 20. What about yours?
Rob Cole
None.
Karim
None? Then what's the point in dying?
Rob Cole
When the plague came, you were as helpless as a beach is to the advance of the sea. The tide washed over us and dragged our people away, and we could do nothing to stop it.
Ibn Sina
You ask of medicine what only Allah can perform. Or Yahweh.
Rob Cole
Do you never doubt your calling?
Ibn Sina
Every morning and every evening. In between I work too hard to think about it.
Ibn Sina
This is the burden every physician must learn to bear. You can't look upon death as the enemy.
Rob Cole
Than what? A friend?
Ibn Sina
I've calculated the orbits... of all these stars and planets. Filled volumes... with calculations. I have barely scratched the real secrets of creation.
Rob Cole
Isn't it frustrating there's so much you don't know?
Ibn Sina
No. Fills me with awe. How pale and tedious would this world be without mystery.
Rob Cole
Master. Could you have cured my mother's side-sickness?
Ibn Sina
That's beyond our reach. Maybe in a hundred years. Maybe in a thousand.
Would you do me a favor? When I am gone, take my corpse to the tower and leave it for the birds.
Rob Cole
You don't want to be buried or cremated?
We Zoroastrians leave our bodies to the vultures. They cleanse our souls of earthly remains.
Rob Cole
What about resurrection?
Muslims, Jews, Christians, doubt the immortality of the soul. They want to take their bones with them, just in case.
Rob Cole
So you care nothing for your body?
Why should God worry about the house, when he can have the fruit inside?
Ibn Sina
What is it like? Inside?
Rob Cole
It's both...beautiful...and frightening.
Ibn Sina
Go on.
Rob Cole
I saw the heart.
Ibn Sina
Describe it.
Rob Cole
It has two chambers with an impassable wall in between.
Ibn Sina
So how does the blood get from one side to the other?
Rob Cole
By way of the lungs I think.
Ibn Sina
So all our theories about human circulation would be... wrong?!
Rob Cole
Master... nothing is as it is in the books. Nothing!
Ibn Sina
Continue. Don't skip a single detail.