Abraham Verghese Quotes, Heart Quotes, Thinking 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

Don't Let Him Know is a rich, evocative and brilliantly told tale of family, of loyalties, and of love that must stay secret. Sandip Roy has broken new ground in this tale of the modern Indian family. A lovely read

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Loyalty Quotes , Broken Quotes

We're losing a ritual. We're losing a ritual that I believe is transformative, transcendent, and is at the heart of the patient-physician relationship.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Believe Quotes

She died chasing greatness and never saw it each time it was in her hand, so she kept seeking it elsewhere, but never understood the work required to get it or to keep it.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Greatness Quotes , Hands 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.

6 years ago

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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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Giving Quotes , Teeth Quotes

We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Broken Quotes , Generations 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

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Uncles Quotes , School Quotes

The flip side of suicide is that it leaves a lingering question in the minds of the people who survived. Its like a cancer thats metastasized. The suicide is the cancer and the metastasis is all these people saying, Why? Why? Why?

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Suicide Quotes , Cancer Quotes

Pray tell us, what's your favorite number?

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Math Quotes , Numbers 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

Students undergo a conversion in the third year of medical school - not pre-clinical to clinical, but pre-cynical to cynical.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , School 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Thinking Quotes , People 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

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Teacher Quotes , Years Quotes

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

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Memories Quotes , Stories Quotes

According to Shiva, life is in the end about fixing holes. Shiva didn't speak in metaphors. fixing holes is precisely what he did. Still, it's an apt metaphor for our profession. But there's another kind of hole, and that is the wound that divides family. Sometimes this wound occurs at the moment of birth, sometimes it happens later. We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Broken Quotes , Tasks 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

The bottom line: health care reform is about the patient, not about the physician.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Physicians Quotes , Reform Quotes