Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.
William OslerRead
To study the phenomena of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The importance of balancing theoretical knowledge with practical experience in medicine.
William Osler emphasizes the necessity of both studying academic literature and engaging with real patients in the field of medicine. He likens the process of learning solely from books to trying to navigate the sea without ever setting sail, highlighting that both knowledge and experience are crucial for a complete education in healthcare.
Themes
EducationMedicinePracticeKnowledgeExperience
In practice
Example use cases
During a medical seminar, to stress the importance of hands-on training, a speaker might say this quote.
More from William Osler
All quotes →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 OslerRead
One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
William OslerRead
No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.
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The young physician starts life with 20 drugs for each disease, and the old physician ends life with one drug for 20 diseases.
William OslerRead
Let each hour of the day have its allotted duty, and cultivate that power of concentration which grows with its exercise.
William OslerRead
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