Osler: Fruit of labor

Excerpts from "Osler - Inspirations from a Great Physician" by Charles Bryan. Oxford Univ. Press 1997


p11. "To few is given the tenacity of will which enables a man to pursue a cherished purpose through a quarter of a century...to fewer still is the fruition granted. Too oftern the reaper is not the sower. Too often the fate of those who labour at some object for the public good is to see their work pass into other hands". (Reportedly, taken from "Books and Men" in Aequanimitas. 145.)


"We must set our goals carefully because we may reach them!"


p. 12. Thucydides [Greek Historian] it was who said of the Greeks tha they possessed "the power of thinking before they acted, and of acting too". That same is true in a high degree of the English race. To know just what has to be done, then do it, comprises the whole philosophy of practical life.
("British Medicine in Greater Britain" in Aequanimitas)