William Osler Quotes

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

The librarian of today, and it will be true still more of the librarians of tomorrow, are not fiery dragons interposed between the people and the books. They are useful public servants, who manage libraries in the interest of the public... Many still think that a great reader, or a writer of books, will make an excellent librarian. This is pure fallacy.

In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

Shut out all of your past except that which will help you weather your tomorrows.

The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.

To talk of diseases is a sort of Arabian Nights entertainment.

Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.

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.

We may indeed be justly proud of our apostolic succesion. THESE ARE OUR METHODS - to carefully observe the phenomena of life in all its stages , to cultivate reasoning faculty so as to be able to know the true from the false. THIS IS OUR WORK - to prevent disease, to relieve suffering and to heal the sick.