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In the operating room I was equally confident. I knew I had the knowledge, the skill, the experience to handle any surgical situation I'd ever encounter in practice. There were no more butterflies in my stomach when I opened up an abdomen or a chest. I knew that even if the case was one in which it was impossible to anticipate the problem in advance, I could handle whatever I found. I'd sweated through my share of stab wounds of the belly, of punctured lungs, of compound fractures. I had sweated over them for five years. I didn't need to sweat any more.
在手术室里我也同样充满信心。我知道自己的知识、技术和经验足以对付我在开业行医中将会碰到的任何外科病例。当我切开病人的腹部或胸腔时，我不再紧张得瑟瑟发抖了。我知道，即使碰上事先无法预见其问题所在的病例，我也能处置我发现的任何情况。我战战兢兢地治疗过交在我手下的腹部刺伤、肺部穿孔以及复合性骨折等病例。这类外科手术我已经战战兢競地干了五年。我再也不必担惊受怕了。
Nor was I afraid of making mistakes. I knew that when I was out in practice I would inevitably err at one time or another and operate on someone who didn't need surgery or sit on someone who did. Five years earlier — even one year earlier —I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had had to take sole responsibility for a mistake in judgment. Now I could. I still dreaded errors — would do my best to avoid them — but I knew they were part of a surgeon's life. I could accept this fact with calmness because I knew that if I wasn't able to avoid a mistake, chances were that no other surgeon could have, either.
而且，我也不再怕犯错误了。我知道在我出去开业行医时，说不定什么时候我就会不可避免地出差错;我会给不需要手术治疗的病人开刀，也可能会把需要动手术的病人忽略过去。五年前——甚至一年前——如果我不得不为一次判断上的失误负全部责任的话，我是没法容忍自己的。现在我能了。我仍然害怕犯错误——愿意竭尽全力避免出错——但我知道这是外科医师生活的一部分。我之所以能够平静地接受这一事实，是因为我知道：如果我不能避免出差错，那么换了任何别的外科医生很可能也不能避免。
This all sounds conceited and I guess it is — but a surgeon needs conceit. He needs it to encourage him in trying moments when he's bothered by the doubts and uncertainties that are part of the practice of medicine. He has to feel that he's as good as and probably better than any other surgeon in the world. Call it conceit — call it self-confidence; whatever it was, I had it.
这些话听上去很自负，而且我以为这的确是自负——但外科医师就是需要这种自负。当他受到行医中必定会遇到的重重疑虑的煎熬时，他需要“自负”来支撑自己度过这些难受的时刻。他必须觉得，他与世上任何一位外科医生相比都毫不逊色，甚至还技高一筹。你管这叫自负也好，叫自信也罢；不管你叫它什么，反正我是有了。
