"To prevent disease, to relieve suffering and to heal the sick - this is our work." --Sir William Osler

"To each one of you the practice of medicine will be very much as you make it - to one a worry, a care, a perpetual annoyance; to another, a daily joy and a life of as much happiness and usefulness as can well fall to the lot of man."  --Sir William Osler

"He who practices medicine without a cause... is as one who navigates without a rudder and oars." --Dr. John Hall [1575-1635] Son-in-law of William Shakespeare

"Is there a greater blessing vouchsafed to makind than medicine is?  Life is our dearest possession by which we breathe and enjoy the company of our fellow beings.  Can any calling be worthier than that which preserves and maintains life itself?" -- Jean Fernel [1497-1558]

"When that time [death] shall come, I shall relinquish many attractions of life, and among them a pleasure which has to me no equal in human pursuits; I mean that which I derive from studying, teaching and praticing medicine." --Benjamin Rush [1745?-1813] Physician, Patriot, Signer of the Declaration of Independence