To confess ignorance is often wiser than to beat about the bush with a hypothetical diagnosis. William Osler More Quotes by William Osler More Quotes From William Osler The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease. William Osler practice-of-medicinephysiciansdisease 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. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with potions and powders, but with the exercise of an influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wicked, of the wise upon the foolish. William Osler strongwiseart Listen to your patient, he is telling you the diagnosis. William Osler diagnosispatient 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 practice-of-medicinehealthimportant 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 practice-of-medicinediseasebook 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 strongdisappointmentlife The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine. William Osler medicinediseasehealth 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 errorsgentlemanhalf Care more for the individual patient than for the special features of the disease. . . . Put yourself in his place . . . The kindly word, the cheerful greeting, the sympathetic look - these the patient understands. William Osler cheerfulspeciallooks 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 practice-of-medicinecallingart Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day absorb all your interest, energy and enthusiasm. The best preparation for tomorrow is to live today superbly well. William Osler preparationeach-daypast The hardest conviction to get into the mind of a beginner is that the education upon which he is engaged is not a college course, not a medical course, but a life course, for which the work of a few years under teachers is but a preparation. William Osler educationalcollegeteacher 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 practice-of-medicineseabook 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. William Osler smellpracticephilosophy One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine. William Osler healthhealingeducation The practice of medicine will be very much as you make it - to one a worry, a care, a perpetual annoyance; to another, a daily job and a life of as much happiness and usefulness as can well fall to the lot of man, because it is a life of self-sacrifice and of countless opportunities to comfort and help the weak-hearted, and to raise up those that fall. William Osler sacrificejobsfall There are three classes of human beings: men, women and women physicians. William Osler physiciansclassmen Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability. William Osler medicinescienceart The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest. William Osler nursingblessingnurse 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. William Osler healthlawlife
