Her body was a prison, her mind was a prison. Her memories were a prison. The people she loved. She couldn’t get away from the hurt of them. She could leave Eric, walk out of her apartment, walk forever if she liked, but she couldn’t escape what really hurt. Tonight even the sky felt like a prison. Ann Brashares, Sisterhood Everlasting
Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of a Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. William Blake
We only believe in those thoughts which have been conceived not in the brain but in the whole body. W B Yeats
To keep the body in good health is a duty ... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. Buddha
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Mary Wollstonecraft
The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body. Publilius Syrus
Beauty is momentary in the mind –
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body’s beauty lives. Wallace Stevens, Peter Quince at the Clavier 1923
Insects are major players in nature's recycling effort, and in nature a corpse is simply organic matter to be recycled. Left to its own devices, nature quickly populates a corpse with a diverse community of organisms, all dedicated to reducing the body to its basic components. M Lee Goff
The fear really hits you. That’s what you feel first. And then it’s the anger and frustration. Part of the problem is how little we understand about the ultimate betrayal of the body when it rebels against itself. Charles Bronson
Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. Deuteronomy 14:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now are they many members, yet but one body. I Corinthians 12:14-20
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. I Corinthians 15:44
The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants. Thomas A Edison
There’s a whole string of reactions ... going on in your body – feedback reactions – that keep all your body levels the way they are supposed to be, like if you need water ... homeostasis. James Burke, Connections s3e1: Feedback, BBC 1997
Lorrain Chevalier of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seen here in 1937, was actually able to sit on her own head! The Chavalier family claims that in 200 years only one person in each generation possessed such dexterity. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! 2006
Phosphorus makes up about 1% of my six-foot-two-inch body. Nova: Hunting the Elements II
I start with the fundamental principle, now long established, that every person’s body is inviolate ... in the case of medical treatment, we have to bear well in mind the libertarian principle of self-determination. Goff LJ, Sidaway v Governors of Bethlem Hospital [1985] AC 871
Michael: I’m going in for a procedure today.
Oscar: Is everything ok?
Michael: Yeah. It’s routine. I’m just a little bit scared.
Oscar: I’m sure everything will be fine. What’s the procedure if you don’t mind my asking?
Michael: It is a colonoscopy.
Oscar: OK.
Michael: In your experience, what should I be expecting, in terms of sensation? Or emotions? … Is there anything I can do to make it more pleasurable for me or for Dr Shandri? The Office US s6e2: The Meeting, NBC 2009
Please don’t talk about my breast milk. ibid. Pam to Michael
In 2001 evidence began to appear from medical experts which suggests that our heart can absorb and remember part of our personality. It is as though the life-force pumping in our blood and the emotional states we experience leave an indelible spiritual hallmark in the heart. Nexus magazine recently published a series of articles about the phenomena known as Organ Memory. Several doctors and patients have testified that some personality traits of the heart donor manifest in the character of the recipient. Chris Everard, Spirit World II
That summer mysterious senses clicked into play. Our thighs seemed to burn like dry grass. Emotion swung wildly, and our bodies seemed tilted out of all recognition. Cider with Rosie ***** starring Samantha Mortin & Archie Cox & Ruby Ashbourne Serkis & Emma Curtis & Jessica Hynes & June Whitfield & Annette Crosbie & Timothy Spall & Billy Howle & Georgie Smith et al, director Philippa Lowthorpe, BBC 2015
In Europe alone 30 million people suffer from rare diseases; nearly half of these are undiagnosed. Medical Mysteries: The Woman Who Smells of Fish, Channel 5 2016
We meet a boy whose behaviour was terrifyingly transformed overnight. Plus a woman giving off an unpleasant odour. And an athlete whose love of exercise is endangering her life. ibid.
Cameron: A cocktail of drugs is masking the symptoms of a mysterious illness which has transformed him. ibid.
The smell isn’t typical stale sweat … ‘Fish that has been left out in the warm.’ ibid.
Swimming induced pulmonary edema is a potentially fatal condition. ibid.
Bizarre swellings all over her body – they are disfiguring and unpredictable. Medical Mysteries: The Extraordinary Swollen Woman
Extreme dizziness: She wakes up every day feeling drunk and disorientated. ibid.
Eleven-year-old James Craig from Eccles suffers severe reactions whenever he steps outside … blistering, scarring and even swelling of the skin … He feels his blood is literally boiling. ibid.
Ardiles strokes the ball like it’s part of his anatomy. Jimmy Magee
We’re discovering astonishing things about the human body all the time through people who are different from most. Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston’s Casebook I, BBC 2017
Virsaviya: ‘This is my heart: I’m the only one that has this.’ ibid.
Born with her heart not inside the ribcage where it would be protected but on the outside just under the skin. ibid.
He’s [Veljano Zanki] broken world records for free-diving, a sport that involved diving to astonishing depths without any oxygen … held his breath underwater for over nine minutes. ibid.
Jeannie Peeper: ‘My body has grown an extra skeleton.’ ibid.
A single spelling mistake in their entire DNA code: ‘That’s one needle in six billion haystacks.’ ibid.
Tom Staniford: ‘One of eight people worldwide who don’t store fat normally.’ ibid.
The tallest man ever known was Robert Wadlow … Robert had an enlarged pituitary gland … 8’11’’ tall and still growing. ibid.
‘I am the fabulous bearded lady … I developed facial hair at the age of ten years old.’ ibid.
He continued to experience pain as if his missing limb was still there. ibid.
Professor V S Ramachandran: his [patient’s] brain had tried to rewire itself … this conflict between sight and touch … an idea that if patients could see a limb where their brain was telling them they could feel one this might reduce the confusion and the pain … Professor Ramachandran called it mirror therapy. ibid.