Quote

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

William Osler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Osler
Age: 70 †
Born: 1849
Born: July 12
Died: 1919
Died: December 29
Physician
Professor
Sir William Osler
Sir William
WO
Cannot
Gentlemen
Make
Confession
Error
Gentleman
Errors
Taught
Half
Tell
Furthermore

More quotes by William Osler

Image
There is no disease more conducive to clinical humility than aneurysm of the aorta.
William Osler
Image
If it were not for the great variability among individuals, medicine might as well be a science, not an art.
William Osler
Image
Half of us are blind, few of us feel, and we are all deaf.
William Osler
Image
To know just what has do be done, then to do it, comprises the whole philosophy of practical life.
William Osler
Image
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
Image
The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.
William Osler
Image
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
Image
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.
William Osler
Image
Let each hour of the day have its allotted duty, and cultivate that power of concentration which grows with its exercise.
William Osler
Image
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.
William Osler
Image
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.
William Osler
Image
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
William Osler
Image
He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.
William Osler
Image
Shed, as you do your garments, your daily sins, whether of omission or commission, and you will wake a free man, with a new life.
William Osler
Image
There are three classes of human beings: men, women and women physicians.
William Osler
Image
No dreams, no visions, no delicious fantasies, no castles in the air, with which, as the old song so truly says, hearts are broken, heads are turned.
William Osler
Image
The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine.
William Osler
Image
The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.
William Osler
Image
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
Image
He who knows syphilis knows medicine
William Osler