Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Language, Literature and Humanities - Galen's Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms

Archiv Aphorism of the month

November 2025

Thin, restricted diets are perilous both in all chronic ailments and in those acute ones where they are not admissible. So too diets that are extreme in terms of thinness are problematic. For extreme filling is also problematic. (1.4)

September / October 2025

Diseases in which sleep causes pain are fatal, those in which sleep gives benefit are not fatal. (II.1)

July / August 2025

Move whatever needs be moved in whatever direction nature dictates, through the appropriate places. (I. 21)

June 2025

In those who perform athletic exercises, peaks of good-condition are perilous, if these reach an extreme. (I.3)

May 2025

As regards the seasons: when the weather is both hot and cold on the same day, you should expect the diseases of autumn. (III.4)

April 2025

Within the seasons, spring and the beginning of summer are best and healthiest for children and for those close to them in age; summer and autumn, up to a certain point, are best for old people; and the rest of the autumn, and winter, are best for those in middle age. (III.18)

March 2025

Old people tolerate fasting most comfortably; next after them those established in age; least of all youths and particularly children; and amongst the latter, least of all those that are more eager [for food]. (I.13)

February 2025

Some diseases are naturally well or badly adapted to some seasons, places and diets, others to others; and the same is true of times of life. (III.3)