Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us now knowing this truth. We are at our best when they give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.

Schweitzer’s remark frames healing as a collaboration between clinician and patient rather than something imposed from outside. The “doctor inside” points to the body’s intrinsic capacities—immune response, repair, resilience—as well as the patient’s agency, morale, and willingness to participate in recovery. In this view, the practitioner’s role is to remove obstacles, supply knowledge and care, and create conditions in which the patient’s own restorative powers can operate. The quote also anticipates later emphases in medicine on patient-centered care and on respecting patients as active partners whose understanding, habits, and choices materially affect outcomes.