Fatherhood Quote by Andrew Taylor Still

Still reaches for the humblest piece of machinery - the plough - to make a case for intellectual self-respect: you show seriousness by upgrading your tools when the work demands it. Coming from the founder of osteopathy, that farm-bred image isn`t folksy decoration; it`s a tactical argument about innovation that doesn`t sound like ego. He frames change as maintenance, not rebellion. The old plough isn`t condemned as stupid, just outmatched. That`s a subtle way to invite colleagues and patients into the same posture: keep what works, swap what fails, and don`t romanticize tradition as virtue.

The intent is defensive as much as aspirational. Still practiced in a 19th-century medical landscape crowded with bloodletting habits, patent-medicine hype, and professional gatekeeping. By casting himself as the sensible farmer rather than the flamboyant iconoclast, he sidesteps the charge of quackery. He isn`t claiming mystical insight; he`s claiming better construction for a specific job - the language of engineering, not ideology.

The subtext is also generational. He borrows his father`s authority to legitimize his own departures: progress is family inheritance, not personal vanity. The repetition of "ready" matters. It`s not a one-time conversion story; it`s a standing willingness to be embarrassed by your older equipment.

In the Progressive Era, "buy a better plough" reads as a moral posture: keep testing, keep refining, and treat tradition as a tool shed, not a shrine.