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In seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.

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
Aim
Absolutes
Absolute
Content
Seeking
Broken
Truth
Unattainable
Must
Portions

More quotes by William Osler

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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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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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Without faith a man can do nothing with it all things are possible.
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Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity and consume your own smoke with an extra draught of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaints.
William Osler
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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.
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The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it.
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A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient.
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Conservatism and old fogeyism are totally different things the motto of one is Prove all things and hold fast that which is good and of the other Prove nothing but hold fast that which is old.
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To do today's work well and not to bother about tomorrow is the secret of accomplishment
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Nothing is life is more wonderful than faith.
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The most essential thing for happiness is the gift of friendship.
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To confess ignorance is often wiser than to beat about the bush with a hypothetical diagnosis.
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Start at once a bedside library and spend the last half hour of the day in communion with the saints of humanity.
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Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
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There is no more potent antidote to the corroding influence of mammon than the presence in the community of a body of men devoted to science, living for investigation and caring nothing for the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
William Osler
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Happiness lies in the absorption in some vocation which satisfies the soul.
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Now of the difficulties bound up with the public in which we doctors work, I hesitate to speak in a mixed audience. Common sense in matters medical is rare, and is usually in inverse ratio to the degree of education.
William Osler
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Half of us are blind, few of us feel, and we are all deaf.
William Osler
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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
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Avoid wine and women - choose a freckly-faced girl for a wife they are invariably more amiable.
William Osler