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To confess ignorance is often wiser than to beat about the bush with a hypothetical diagnosis.

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
Confess
Wiser
Bush
Beat
Beats
Ignorance
Often
Hypothetical
Diagnosis

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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
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The higher the standard of education in a profession, the less marked will be the charlatanism.
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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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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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What is the student but a lover courting a fickle mistress who ever eludes his grasp?
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There is no disease more conducive to clinical humility than aneurysm of the aorta.
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The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.
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It is not as if our homeopathic brothers are asleep: far from it, they are awake - many of them at any rate - to the importance of the scientific study of disease.
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A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient.
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A library represents the mind of its collector, fancies and foibles, strengths and weaknesses, prejudices and preferences.
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Beware of people who call you 'Doc.' They rarely pay their bills.
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The great minds, the great works transcend all limitations of time, of language, and of race, and the scholar can never feel initiated into the company of the elect until he can approach all of life's problems from the cosmopolitan standpoint.
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The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine.
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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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It cannot be too often or too forcibly brought home to us that the hope of the profession is with the men who do its daily work in general practice.
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The very first step toward success in any occupation is to become interested in it. Locke put this in a very happy way when he said, give a pupil a relish of knowledge and you put life into his work.
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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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It is not the delicate neurotic person who is prone to angina, but the robust, the vigorous in mind and body, the keen and ambitious man, the indicator of whose engines is always at full speed ahead.
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No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.
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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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