A Spoonful of Sugar

Find out WHO said WHAT about pharmacists and the work they do

A Spoonful of Sugar is a collection of quotations from sources as diverse as Shakespeare, Pope John Paul II, and Gilbert and Sullivan that comment on the work and profession of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists. This enlightening book is divided into 30 chapters by individual topics and grouped by subject matter that includes medicines at the pharmacist’s disposal, the adversaries he faces, his labors, and the scientific basis of modern medicines. The quotes—which are also indexed by author—reference everything from aspirin to coughs to emulsions, providing an enlightening read that doubles as a quick and reliable classroom resource.

Editors Ray Rowe and Joseph Chamberlain draw on their combined experience of nearly 70 years working in the pharmaceutical industry and pharmaceutical publishing to present more than 1,000 entries from scientists and health professionals, educators and economists, clerics and poets—even advertising slogans! Their criteria for selection is just as diverse, listing quotes that are thought-provoking, influential, witty, memorable, and even pithy. The editors provide a detailed index of keywords to help you find a half-remembered quote and whenever possible, a brief reference to the source of the quotation is included.

Some examples from A Spoonful of Sugar:


“Give me an ounce of civit, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination.”—Shakespeare

“A skilful leech is better far than half a hundred men of war.”—Samuel Butler, English satirist

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A man of very moderate ability may be a good physician, if he devotes himself faithfully to the work.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patients while Nature cures the disease.”—Voltaire

“There are two kinds of statistics: the kind you look up and the kind you make up.”—Rex Stout, American writer

“When meditating over a disease, I never think of finding a remedy for it, but instead, a means of preventing it.”—Louis Pasteur

and many more!

A Spoonful of Sugar is an entertaining and enlightening reference resource for practicing pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists, and for anyone interested in the pharmaceutical fields.