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Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.

William Osler

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William Osler
Age: 70 †
Born: 1849
Born: July 12
Died: 1919
Died: December 29
Physician
Professor
Sir William Osler
Sir William
WO
Uncertainty
Medical
Medicine
Science
Art
Probability

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The true poetry of life: the poetry of the commonplace, of the ordinary man, of the plain, toil-worn woman, with their loves and their joys, their sorrows and their griefs.
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One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
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Work is the open sesame of every portal, the great equalizer in the world, the true philosopher's stone which transmutes all the base metal of humanity into gold.
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The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it.
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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.
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The clean tongue, the clear head, and the bright eye are birthrights of each day.
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No man is really happy or safe without a hobby.
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Acquire the art of detachment, the virtue of method, and the quality of thoroughness, but above all the grace of humility.
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The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and beget.
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If it were not for the great variability among individuals, medicine might as well be a science, not an art.
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It is much simpler to buy books than to read them and easier to read them than to absorb their contents.
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The young doctor should look about early for an avocation, a pastime, that will take him away from patients, pills, and potions.
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Too many men slip early out of the habit of studious reading, and yet that is essential.
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Even in populous districts, the practice of medicine is a lonely road which winds up-hill all the way and a man may easily go astray and never reach the Delectable Mountains unless he early finds those shepherd guides of whom Bunyan tells, Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere.
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To it, more than to anything else, I owe whatever success I have had - to this power of settling down to the day's work and trying to do it to the best of one's ability, and letting the future take care of itself.
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Without egotism and full of feeling, laughter is the music of life.
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The extraordinary development of modern science may be her undoing. Specialism, now a necessity, has fragmented the specialities themselves in a way that makes the outlook hazardous. The workers lose all sense of proportion in a maze of minutiae.
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We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.
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The only way to treat the common cold is with contempt.
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Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants.
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