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By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy-indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction.

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
Knowledge
Honesty
Absorption
Fighting
Lack
Bred
Whatever
Integrity
Foe
Character
Cause
Apathy
Self
Fight
Contempt
Dangerous
Indifference
Virtue
Pursuit
Carelessness
Causes
Satisfaction
Pursuits

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The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.
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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.
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It is not... That some people do not know what to do with truth when it is offered to them, But the tragic fate is to reach, after patient search, a condition of mind-blindness, in which. The truth is not recognized, though it stares you in the face.
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There are only two sorts of doctors those who practise with their brains, and those who practise with their tongues.
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The only way to treat the common cold is with contempt.
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The Scots are the backbone of Canada. They are all right in their three vital parts - head, heart and haggis.
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For the general practitioner a well-used library is one of the few correctives of the premature senility which is so apt to take him.
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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.
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To confess ignorance is often wiser than to beat about the bush with a hypothetical diagnosis.
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Think not of the amount to be accomplished, the difficulties to be overcome, or the end to be attained, but set earnestly at the little task at your elbow, letting that be sufficient for the day.
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The good physician treats the disease the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.
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Happiness lies in the absorption in some vocation which satisfies the soul.
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What is patience but an equanimity which enables you to rise superior to the trials of life.
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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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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.
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Courage and cheerfulness will not only carry you over the rough places in life, but will enable you to bring comfort and help to the weak-hearted and will console you in the sad hours.
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In the Mortality Bills, pneumonia is an easy second, to tuberculosis indeed in many cities the death-rate is now higher and it has become, to use the phrase of Bunyan 'the captain of the men of death.'
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There is no disease more conducive to clinical humility than aneurysm of the aorta.
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But whatever you do, take neither yourselves nor your fellow-creatures too seriously. There is tragedy enough in our daily routine, but there is room too for a keen sense of the absurdities and incongruities of life, and in the shifting panorama no one sees better than the doctor the perennial sameness of men’s ways.
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To know just what has do be done, then to do it, comprises the whole philosophy of practical life.
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