physician, heal thyself

physician, heal thyself

English

Alternative forms

• doctor, heal thyself

Etymology

Calque of Ancient Greek ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν (iatré, therápeuson seautón) and Latin medice, cūrā tē ipsum, from Luke 4:23.[1]

Proverb

physician, heal thyself

1. Attend to your own defects before presuming to advise others about theirs.
   • 1919, Sax Rohmer, chapter XXI, in Dope:

     “You are really as bad as Margaret,” she declared. “There is nothing the matter with me. You talk of ‘curing’ me as though I were ill. Physician, heal thyself.”

Translations

Translations

Arabic: أَيُّهَا ٱلطَّبِيبُ ٱشْفِ نَفْسَكَ‎ (ʾayyuhā ṭ-ṭabību šfi nafsaka) Catalan: metge, cura't a tu mateix Chinese: Mandarin: 醫生，你醫治自己罷／医生，你医治自己罢 (yīshēng, nǐ yīzhì zìjǐ bà); Dutch: medicijnmeester, genees uzelven; geneesheer, genees uzelf Finnish: parantaja, paranna itsesi French: médecin, guéris-toi toi-même German: Arzt, hilf dir selber; Arzt, heile dich selbst Greek: Ancient: ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν (iatré, therápeuson seautón) Italian: medico, cura te stesso Japanese: 医者の不養生 (ja) (isha no fuyōjō) Latin: medice, cura te ispum Old Church Slavonic: врачꙋ̀, и҆сцѣли́сѧ са́мъ Polish: lekarzu, lecz się sam, lekarzu, ulecz samego siebie Portuguese: médico, cura-te a ti mesmo Russian: вра́чу, исцели́ся сам (vráču, iscelísja sam) Spanish: médico, cúrate a ti mismo

See also

• people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
• the pot calling the kettle black
• tu quoque

References

1. The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, OCLC 964384981, Luke 4:23: “And hee said vnto them, Yee will surely say vnto me this prouerbe, Physition, heale thy selfe: Whatsoeuer wee haue heard done in Capernaum, doe also here in thy countrey.”.

Further reading

• “physician, heal thyself”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Gary Martin (1997–), “Physician, heal thyself”, in The Phrase Finder.