proverb · Words worth keeping
Temperance is the best physic.
Temperance is the best physic.
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying ranks temperance as the best medicine. It gives moderation a medicinal role and places it above other means without supplying a measured comparison.
Example
A reader distinguishes a moral recommendation about moderation from evidence about treating an illness.
Deeper explanation and when to use it
Physic is read in its older medicinal sense. A responsible interpretation can discuss restraint as a moral ideal without treating it as a cure or making illness evidence of excess. The term best is a rhetorical ranking here, not a clinical result. The source gives no condition, method or amount from which treatment advice could be drawn.
When to use it
Use it to examine a medicinal metaphor for moderation.
Keep in mind
The claim is not a treatment recommendation or proof that moderation replaces medical care.
An interpretation of the words, not a claim about their earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Date unknown
- Culture
- English