It is much simpler to buy books than to read them and easier to read them than to absorb their contents.
There are three classes of human beings: men, women and women physicians.
If it were not for the great variability among individuals, medicine might as well be a science, not an art.
Humanity has but three great enemies: fever, famine, and war; of these by far the greatest, by far the most terrible, is fever.
The teacher’s life should have three periods, study until twenty-five, investigation until forty, profession until sixty, at which age I would have him retired on a double allowance.
To confess ignorance is often wiser than to beat about the bush with a hypothetical diagnosis.
We are all dietetic sinners; only a small percent of what we eat nourishes us; the balance goes to waste and loss of energy.
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.
Taking a lady’s hand gives her confidence in her physician.
We are constantly misled by the ease with which our minds fall into the ruts of one or two experiences.
There are, in truth, no specialties in medicine, since to know fully many of the most important diseases a man must be familiar with their manifestations in many organs.
A well-trained, sensible doctor is one of the most valuable assets of a community.
In seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.
Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition.
Shut out all of your past except that which will help you weather your tomorrows.
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.
To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals – this alone is worth the struggle.
The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.