Harry L.S. Knopf has been a practicing physician for over 30 years. As a comprehensive (general) ophthalmologist, he has treated babies, children, young adults, mature adults and the elderly. He is also part of a long and venerable tradition of medical aphorists that began with the main man himself, Hippocrates. The famous Greek physician composed hundreds of aphorisms, most of which were based on his experiences as a doctor and most of which were intended as teaching tools through which to educate young physicians. Many of Hippocrates’ aphorisms are medicine for the soul as much as for the body, and this is also the prescription that Harry Knopf fills. Most of his aphorisms, he says, are derived directly from interaction with patients. He often comes up with them while driving to and from the hospital where he practices. They are collected in Harry’s Homilies: Prescriptions for a Better Life, from which the following brief selection is made:

Life’s gifts are sometimes poorly wrapped.

Contentment comes from the realization of how much you already have.

There IS an answer for everything; you just have to make it up.

There are good days and bad days, happy days and sad days. The important thing to remember is that there are days.