Abraham Verghese Quotes, Ordinary Quotes, Sacred Quotes

If 'ecstasy' meant the sudden intrusion of the sacred into the ordinary, then it had just happened to me.

5 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Ordinary Quotes , Sacred Quotes

Make something beautiful of your life.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Beautiful Quotes

I'm a great believer in geography being destiny.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Destiny Quotes , Geography Quotes

We have the sense that medical students come to medicine with a great capacity to understand the suffering of patients. And then by the end of the third year they completely lose that ability, partly because we teach them the specialized language of medicine.

5 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Years Quotes , Medicine Quotes

I think America is really in denial about the degree to which residents, particularly foreign medical graduates, man the county hospitals of this country, and but for their services, I'm not sure how exactly we could manage.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Country Quotes , Thinking Quotes

There are moments as a teacher when I'm conscious that I'm trotting out the same exact phrase my professor used with me years ago. It's an eerie feeling, as if my old mentor is not just in the room, but in my shoes, using me as his mouthpiece.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Teacher Quotes , Years Quotes

I always wondered if the good people who send us bibles really think that hookworm and hunger are healed by scripture? Our patients are illiterate.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Thinking Quotes , People Quotes

It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Memories Quotes , Stories Quotes

Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. It is only when you stop and look to the rear that you see the corpse caught under your wheel.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Looks Quotes , Wheels Quotes

No matter what ailed you, you went to see the barber surgeon who wound up cupping you, bleeding you, purging you. And, oh yes, if you wanted, he would give you a haircut and pull your tooth while he was at it.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Giving Quotes , Teeth Quotes

By visiting patients in their home, by helping them come to terms with their illness, I could heal when I could not cure.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Home Quotes , Helping Quotes

My sense is that the wonderful technology that we have to visualize the inside of the body often leaves physicians feeling that the exam is a waste of time and so they may shortchange the ritual.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Technology Quotes , Feelings Quotes

My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they'll leave in people's hearts. They realize the no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate, can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.

5 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Regret Quotes , Heart Quotes

Pray tell us, what's your favorite number?"... "Shiva jumped up to the board, uninvited, and wrote 10,213,223"... "And pray, why would this number interest us?" "It is the only number that describes itself when you read it, 'One zero, two ones, three twos, two threes'.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Zero Quotes , Two Quotes

We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Lucky Quotes , Purpose Quotes

You are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can can play the 'Gloria'? No, not Bach's 'Gloria.' Yours! Your 'Gloria' lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Son Quotes , Play Quotes

The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Motivational Quotes , Destiny Quotes

She had always assumed that she would have years to sort out the meaning of life... As she bent over the child she realized that the tragedy of death had to do entirely with what was left unfulfilled.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Children Quotes , Years Quotes

Certainly when I got to medical school, I had role models of the kind of physicians I wanted to be. I had an uncle who, looking back, was probably not the most-educated physician around but he carried it off so well.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Uncles Quotes , School Quotes

Yesterday misspent can't be recall'd Vanity makes beauty contemptible Wisdom is more valuable than riches.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Vanity Quotes , Yesterday Quotes