To study the phenomena of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all.
About William Osler
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian physician and one of the “Big Four” founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians.
More quotes from William Osler
The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
To study the phenomena of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and to beget.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals – this alone is worth the struggle.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
What is the student but a lover courting a fickle mistress who ever eludes his grasp?
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
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.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
In seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The young physician starts life with 20 drugs for each disease, and the old physician ends life with one drug for 20 diseases.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today’s work superbly well.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
There is no disease more conducive to clinical humility than aneurysm of the aorta.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The future is today.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
It is much simpler to buy books than to read them and easier to read them than to absorb their contents.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
The first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
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.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Variability is the law of life, and as no two faces are the same, so no two bodies are alike, and no two individuals react alike and behave alike under the abnormal conditions which we know as disease.
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital