Abraham Verghese Quotes, Writing Quotes, Cutting Quotes

In writing, as in medicine, there are no short cuts. You need stamina.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Writing Quotes , Cutting Quotes

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

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Heart Quotes , Son Quotes

He was teaching me how to die, just as he'd taught me how to live.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Teaching Quotes , Taught Quotes

For one who has an interest in the body as text, airports are treasure troves of information. It seems almost un-American to enjoy delays, and perhaps enjoy is not the best word, but certainly a delayed flight, if it does nothing else, allows one the opportunity to make prolonged observations about one's fellow travelers.

5 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Opportunity Quotes , Airports 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.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Believe 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

Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals

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Tags : Abraham Verghese 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?

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Suicide Quotes , Cancer Quotes

Patients know in a heartbeat if they're getting a clumsy exam.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Patient Quotes , Exam Quotes

The only way to know where you are is by where you have just been.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Way Quotes , Where You Are Quotes

What we are fighting isn't godlessness--this is the most godly country on earth. We aren't even fighting disease. Its poverty. Money for food, medicines... that helps. When we cannot cure or save a life, our patients can at least feel cared for. It should be a basic human right.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Country Quotes , Godly 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

Tell us please, what treatment in an emergency is administered by ear?"....I met his gaze and I did not blink. "Words of comfort," I said to my father.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Father Quotes , Comfort 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.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Broken Quotes , Tasks 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

Another day in paradise' was his inevitable pronouncement when he settled his head on his pillow. Now I understand what that meant: the uneventful day was a precious gift.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Paradise Quotes , Another Day 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

Make something beautiful of your life.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Beautiful 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

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.

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