"The critical sense and sceptical attitude of the Hippocratic school laid the foundations of modern medicine on broad lines, and we owe to it: first, the emancipation of medicine from the shackles of priestcraft and of caste; secondly, the conception of medicine as an art based on accurate observation, and as a science, an integral part of the science of man and of nature; thirdly, the high moral ideals, expressed in that most "memorable of human documents" , the Hippocratic oath; and fourthly, the conception and realization of medicine as the profession of a cultivated gentleman."

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

“Take the sum of human achievement in action, in science, in art, in literature—subtract the work of the men above forty, and while we should miss great treasures, even priceless treasures, we would practically be where we are today … The effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty.”

“Osler Library, brief biography of William Osler”

“We are here to add what we can to, not to get what we can from, Life.”

“Common sense in matters medical is rare, and is usually in inverse ratio to the degree of education.”

“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.”