Perhaps the most significant Latin phrase that deals with medicine — a phrase that you may see predominantly displayed in your doctor's office — is Primum non nocere (Above all, do no harm). This fundamental precept reminds doctors to consider potential injury that may occur as a result of outside intervention. Medical decisions carry a dual edge: the potential benefit and the potential harm. The physician is being reminded that not harming the patient is of paramount importance.

Another Latin aphorism you may see is this one: Ars longa, vita brevis (Art is long, life is short). This is a Latin translation of a phrase by Hippocrates, a physician so influential that he earned the title “Father of Medicine.” What Hippocrates meant by “art” was “medicine,” so he was saying that learning the craft of medicine takes a lifetime.

Need more Latin medical quotes? In his Aeneid, the famous Roman poet Virgil wrote this: “Aegrescit medendo” (The disease worsens with treatment). “Plus a medico quam a morbo periculi” (More danger from the doctor than from the disease) was the pronouncement in Robert Burton's 1621 Anatomy of Melancholy. Bet you won't see either of those on your doctor's walls.