physician, heal thyself

English

Etymology

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

Proverb

physician, heal thyself

1. One should attend to one's own defects before presuming to advise others about theirs.

   Synonym: doctor, heal thyself

   • 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 (ʔayyuhā 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)

• Hebrew: אָסְיָא אַסִּי חִגַּרְתָּךְ (he) (ásya así ẖigartách) (Aramaic)
• 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 (vračù, i҆scělísę sámŭ)
• 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

Further reading

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