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
Variability is the law of life, and as no two faces are the same, so no two bodies are alike, and no two individuals react alike and behave alike under the abnormal conditions which we know as disease.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is characterized by variability, and each individual responds differently to challenges such as disease.
William Osler highlights the inherent variability in life, emphasizing that just as no two faces are alike, individuals respond uniquely to the stresses and conditions of life, particularly when faced with illness. This reflects the complexity of human nature and the importance of understanding individual differences in the context of health and disease.
Themes
VariabilityIndividualityLifeDiseaseResponse
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a medical conference to emphasize the importance of personalized medicine.
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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