Medieval Reference Manual Quotes

Context

This misquoted line originated from reference manual by author John Withals (1574).

Whenever you have a cold or fever, you should quarantine yourself. Not to avoid getting other people sick, but to avoid unsolicited medical advice from your friends, all of whom are keyboard physicians in the WebMD age.

Is it "Starve a cold, feed a fever" or "Starve a fever, feed a cold"? What if you have a cold and a fever? In 1574, John Withals wrote "Fasting is a great remedie of feuer." "Feuer" being Medieval dude-speak for "fever," of course. And that was the beginning of all the confusion. How do we cure that?

Where you've heard it

When you're sick, you hear this from your mom, who clearly didn't go to nursing school. Thanks anyway, Mom.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Offering unwanted amateur medical advice is pretentious and potentially dangerous. But everyone likes to be armchair physicians, us included. So we'll just let you know that WebMD says starvation is never the answer to either ailment.