Rush Quotes

“Invoking the story of David, Davies implored his students to “imbibe and cherish a public spirit. Serve your generation. Live not for your selves, but the public. Be the servants of the Church; the servants of your Country; the servants of all.” He exhorted them to “esteem yourselves” not by how much “more happy, honourable and important” you can become but by how much “more useful you are!”
― Stephen Fried, Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father

“Next to alcoholism, what intrigued and horrified Rush most in his rounds were the patients locked in the basement cells. He felt immediately that the circumstances these patients lived under were absolutely unacceptable. But the “lunatics,” who most people still viewed as damned rather than diseased, presented a unique and troubling situation. They weren’t truly in the hospital to be treated, because nobody knew for sure what their treatment should be. They were in the basement primarily to keep them safe from society, and society safe from them. The first step in improving their situation would simply involve warehousing them more benevolently. But even that proposition was challenging; nobody seemed to have the slightest idea how to proceed.”
― Stephen Fried, Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father