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Named source · 1913

A Way of Life Quotes by William Osler: Context & Meanings

3 quotations linked to A Way of Life by or associated with William Osler, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

About this source

1913 Yale conduct-of-life address

Topics and ideas

Present-day attention, time, concentration, habit, daily work and the “day-tight compartments” metaphor.

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3 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1
“Life in day-tight compartments.”

Osler compresses his daily-living method into a boundary around the present day: yesterday and tomorrow are acknowledged without being allowed to consume the work and choices available now.

Source note: A Way of Life, Yale address delivered April 20, 1913; Project Gutenberg #73116. The phrase belongs to Osler’s metaphor of watertight ship compartments and is presented as historical conduct-of-life advice, not a treatment for anxiety or other health conditions.

Source identified2
“Concentration is an art of slow acquisition”

Concentration is treated as a capacity built gradually through repeated practice, making sustained attention a training process rather than an instant demand for maximum efficiency.

Source note: A Way of Life, section IV; Project Gutenberg #73116. The excerpt is kept with Osler’s discussion of steady study and deliberate pacing rather than being presented as a quantified modern productivity rule.

Source identified3
“Realise how much time there is, how long the day is.”

The line reframes a day as a substantial block of usable time, encouraging deliberate attention rather than the constant feeling that useful work must be rushed.

Source note: A Way of Life, section IV; Project Gutenberg #73116. Osler places the sentence within advice on directing the mind and avoiding hurry and worry; this collection does not convert his period medical rhetoric into a modern clinical claim.