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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.

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
Difficult
Brief
Art
Plain
Men
Acquire
Observation
Record
Records
Quite
Language

More quotes by William Osler

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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.
William Osler
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The future belongs to Science. More and more she will control the destinies of the nations. Already she has them in her crucible and on her balances.
William Osler
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Patients rarely die of the disease from which they suffer. Secondary or terminal infections are the real cause of death.
William Osler
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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
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When schemes are laid in advance, it is surprising how often the circumstances will fit in with them.
William Osler
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The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.
William Osler
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Take the sum of human achievement in action, in science, in art, in literature subtract the work of the men above forty, and while we should miss great treasures, even priceless treasures, we would practically be where we are today ... The effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty.
William Osler
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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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Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
William Osler
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Without faith a man can do nothing with it all things are possible.
William Osler
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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.
William Osler
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To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle.
William Osler
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Shut out all of your past except that which will help you weather your tomorrows.
William Osler
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We doctors have always been a simple trusting folk. Did we not believe Galen implicitly for 1500 years and Hippocrates for more than 2000?
William Osler
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Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.
William Osler
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Varicose veins are the result of an improper selection of grandparents.
William Osler
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Perhaps no sin so easily besets us as a sense of self-satisfied superiority to others.
William Osler
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Few diseases present greater difficulties in the way of diagnosis than malignant endocarditis, difficulties which in many cases are practi- cally insurmountable. It is no disparagement to the many skilled physicians who have put their cases upon record to say that, in fully one-half the diagnosis was made post mortem.
William Osler
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The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.
William Osler
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One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
William Osler