He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.
— William Osler
Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.
— William Osler
The first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
— William Osler
The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.
— William Osler
The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.
— William Osler
It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.
— William Osler
Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants.
— William Osler
The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow.
— William Osler
No human being is constituted to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and even the best of men must be content with fragments, with partial glimpses, never the full fruition.
— William Osler
There are, in truth, no specialties in medicine, since to know fully many of the most important diseases a man must be familiar with their manifestations in many organs.
— William Osler
The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.
— William Osler
The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and to beget.
— William Osler
The future is today.
— William Osler
Acquire the art of detachment, the virtue of method, and the quality of thoroughness, but above all the grace of humility.
— William Osler
Ask not what disease the person has, but rather what person the disease has.
— William Osler
Shut out all of your past except that which will help you weather your tomorrows.
— William Osler
The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow.
— William Osler
Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition.
— William Osler
Quit worrying about your health. It’ll go away
— William Osler
Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in you humdrum routine, the true poetry of life – the poetry of the commonplace, of the ordinary person, of the plain, toilworn, with their loves and their joys, their sorrows and griefs.
— William Osler
The librarian of today, and it will be true still more of the librarians of tomorrow, are not fiery dragons interposed between the people and the books. They are useful public servants, who manage libraries in the interest of the public… Many still think that a great reader, or a writer of books, will make an excellent librarian. This is pure fallacy.
— William Osler
We may indeed be justly proud of our apostolic succesion. THESE ARE OUR METHODS – to carefully observe the phenomena of life in all its stages , to cultivate reasoning faculty so as to be able to know the true from the false. THIS IS OUR WORK – to prevent disease, to relieve suffering and to heal the sick.
— William Osler
Medicine is learned by the bedside and not in the classroom. Let not your conceptions of disease come from words heard in the lecture room or read from the book. See, and then reason and compare and control. But see first.
— William Osler
The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine.
— William Osler
Be calm and strong and patient. Meet failure and disappointment with courage. Rise superior to the trials of life, and never give in to hopelessness or despair. In danger, in adversity, cling to your principles and ideals. Aequanimitas!
— William Osler
Gentlemen, I have a confession to make. Half of what we have taught you is in error, and furthermore we cannot tell you which half it is
— William Osler
The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.
— William Osler
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