Rob Cole Quotes in The Physician (2013)

Ibn Sina: This is the burden every physician must learn to bear. You can't look upon death as the enemy.

Rob Cole: Than what? A friend?

Ibn Sina: [looking to the sky] I've calculated the orbits of all these stars and planets. Filled volumes with calculations. I have barely scratched the real secrets of creation.

Rob Cole: Isn't it frustrating there's so much you don't know?

Ibn Sina: No. It fills me with awe. How pale and tedious would this world be without mystery.

Rob Cole: I don't want to treat warts all my life. I don't want to pull teeth and sell horse piss as a miracle tonic. I want to learn how to cure cataracts, side sickness and all other diseases.

Ibn Sina: What is it like?

Rob Cole: Inside?

Ibn Sina: [nods]

Rob Cole: It is both... beautiful... and frightening.

Ibn Sina: Go on.

Rob Cole: I saw the heart!

Ibn Sina: Describe it.

Rob Cole: It has two chambers with an impassable wall in between.

Ibn Sina: So how does the blood get from one side to the other?

Rob Cole: By way of the lungs, I think.

Ibn Sina: So all our theories of human circulation would be... wrong.

Rob Cole: Master, nothing is as it is in the books! Nothing!

Rebecca: In my fever, I dreamt that we were man and wife. We had children... Four!

Rob Cole: Did we roam around in a barber's car?

Rebecca: [smiles] No, we lived in a great city. Where you built a Madraza!

Rob Cole: All by myself?

Rebecca: I helped.

Rob Cole: May the Lord have mercy upon me! Bless me in my long and dangerous journey. Let not the waves engulf me nor sea monsters devour me. Let not bandits slit my throat, or wolves eat me alive. Let me not starve or get lost in the dark woods or cold mountains. And please let Jesus forgive me that I shall deny my faith and soil myself with sin to serve your creation and glory.

Rob Cole: I already miss him.

Rebecca: No. No one is dead. As long as we all remember them, his spirit will live on. But it is in your hands to keep it alive.

Rob Cole: How can I do that?

Rebecca: Be a great physician.

Rob Cole: [looking at Ispahan on a world map] How long would it take me to get there?

Jew in Caravan: Over a year. First you will have to go the south coast of England, then you cross the Channel, then you walk through France, and take a sailboat along the coast of Africa. Then you arrive in Egypt. And here... you will be killed.

Rob Cole: Why?

Jew in Caravan: From this point, the Muslim world begins. Arabia, Persia... But Christians have been banished from everywhere, only we Jews are tolerated. My condolences. You worship the wrong God.

Rob Cole: May the Lord have mercy upon me. Bless me in my long and dangerous journey. Let not the waves engulf me, nor sea monsters devour me. Let not bandits slit my throat, or wolves eat me alive. Let me not starve or get lost in the dark woods or cold mountains. And please let Jesus forgive me. That I shall deny my faith and soil myself with sin. To serve your creation and glory.

Ibn Sina: You seem more interested in medicine than my other patients.

Rob Cole: I've come to be a student of Ibn Sina.

Ibn Sina: Have you now?

Rob Cole: I've been told he's the greatest healer in all the world.

Ibn Sina: No he's not that great. Quite ordinary, really.

Rob Cole: Do you know him?

Ibn Sina: A little better each day.

Rob Cole: Up in time for class, Karim. What's wrong? Did your father realize there is more to studying than just buying books?

Karim: One cannot be up in time for class if one never went to bed.

Rob Cole: Wake the pharmacist! Fetch my bag! Run...

Despina: Where is he going?

Ibn Sina: To save your life.

Rob Cole: The plague doesn't care if you're rich or poor, common man or nobleman or head of state. But it's reached Ispahan. No wall, however thick, will stop it.

Shah Ala ad Daula: Are you threatening me, Englishman?

Rob Cole: Not a threat, my lord. A promise.

Rob Cole: They're going to die!

Ibn Sina: We will fight for each and every life. Do you hear me? Each and every one.

Rob Cole: You have all these virgins waiting for you. How many was it again?

Karim: Some say 99, some say 20. What about yours?

Rob Cole: None.

Karim: None? Then what's the point in dying?

Mirdin: God gives us life, and God takes it back.

Rob Cole: Why does he always take more than he gives?

Rob Cole: When the plague came, you were as helpless as a beach is to the advance of the sea. The tide washed over us and dragged our people away, and we could do nothing to stop it.

Ibn Sina: You ask of medicine what only Allah can perform. Or Yahweh.

Rob Cole: Do you never doubt your calling?

Ibn Sina: Every morning and every evening. In between I work too hard to think about it.

Quasim: Would you do me a favor? When I am gone, take my corpse to the tower and leave it for the birds.

Rob Cole: You don't want to be buried or cremated?

Quasim: We Zoroastrians leave our bodies to the vultures. They cleanse our souls of earthly remains.

Rob Cole: What about resurrection?

Quasim: Muslims, Jews, Christians, doubt the immortality of the soul. They want to take their bones with them, just in case.

Rob Cole: So you care nothing for your body?

Quasim: Why should God worry about the house, when he can have the fruit inside?

Rob Cole: [after surgery] My lord, to stand any chance of survival, you must rest.

Shah Ala ad Daula: The hour of my demise is already waiting. Thanks to you, the angel of death will not find me in bed like a simpering old man, but on the battlefield like a king.

Karim: What will you remember me as, Englishman? Friend or tyrant?

Rob Cole: Both.