Abraham Verghese Quotes, Years Quotes, Medicine 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Years Quotes , Medicine Quotes

I think we can see how blessed we are in America to have access to the kind of health care we do if we are insured, and even if uninsured, how there is a safety net. Now, as to the problem of how much health care costs and how we reform health care ... it is another story altogether.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Blessed Quotes , Thinking Quotes

No blade can puncture the human heart like the well-chosen words of a spiteful son.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Heart Quotes , Son Quotes

This is my life, I thought...I have excised the cancer from my past, cut it out; I have crossed the high plains, descended into the desert, traversed oceans, and planted my feet in new soil; I have been the apprentice, paid my dues, and have just become master of my ship. But when I look down, why do I see the ancient, tarred, mud-stained slippers that I buried at the start of the journey still stuck to my feet?

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Cancer Quotes , Ocean Quotes

I still find the best way to understand a hospitalized patient is not by staring at the computer screen but by going to see the patient; it's only at the bedside that I can figure out what is important.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Important Quotes , Way Quotes

God will judge us, Mr. Harris, by--by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings. I don't think God cares what doctrine we embrace.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Judging Quotes

What did it say when a man had fewer clothes than books?

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Book Quotes , Men Quotes

He had so many ways of climbing into the tree house in his head, escaping the madness below, and pulling the ladder up behind him.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Climbing Quotes , Escaping 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Country Quotes , Thinking Quotes

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

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Ordinary Quotes , Sacred Quotes

Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Home Quotes , Definitions Quotes

That's the funny thing about America--the blessed thing. As many people as there are to hold you back, there are angels whose humanity makes up for all the others. I've had my share of angels.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Thank You Quotes , Blessed Quotes

In America, we have always taken it as an article of faith that we 'battle' cancer; we attack it with knives, we poison it with chemotherapy or we blast it with radiation. If we are fortunate, we 'beat' the cancer. If not, we are posthumously praised for having 'succumbed after a long battle.'

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Cancer Quotes , Taken 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. I grew up and I found my purpose and it was to become a physician. My intent wasn't to save the world as much as to heal myself. Few doctors will admit this, certainly not young ones, but subconsciously, in entering the profession, we must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness. And it can. but it can also deepen the wound.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Believe Quotes , Doctors Quotes

You live it forward, but understand it backward.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Life Quotes

I believe in black holes. I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the last swirl around the drain.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Believe Quotes , Past 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Regret Quotes , Heart Quotes

I joke, but I only half joke, that if you come to one of our hospitals missing a limb, no one will believe you till they get a CAT scan, MRI, or orthopedic consult.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Believe Quotes

I think we learn from medicine everywhere that it is, at its heart, a human endeavor, requiring good science but also a limitless curiosity and interest in your fellow human being, and that the physician-patient relationship is key; all else follows from it.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Heart Quotes , Thinking Quotes

Literature is a beautiful way of keeping the imagination alive, of visiting worlds you would never have time to in your day-to-day life. It keeps you abreast of a wider spectrum of human activities.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Imagination Quotes