In this quote, Hippocrates was referring to the art of healing, which would live on even after he was dead. Hipprocrates, the father of medicine, the man who first wrote this in his works, was a Greek physician on the island of Cos. He based his practice on looking and discovering things from the human body, not staring up at the clouds waiting for a sign from the gods, as did most of the other physicians of this era. After Hippocrates began to use evidence from the body itself, however, many young doctors followed in his footsteps. He developed the Oath of Medical Ethics, known as the Hippocratic Oath in today's world, which every doctor and nurse now takes on his or her graduation from medical school.