Abraham Verghese Quotes, Cancer Quotes, Taken 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.'

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Cancer Quotes , Taken Quotes

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , School Quotes , Years Quotes

Pray tell us, what's your favorite number?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Math Quotes , Numbers Quotes

The most important innovation in medicine to come in the next 10 years: the power of the human hand.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Inspiration 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Believe 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Teacher Quotes , Years 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Loyalty Quotes , Broken 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?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Suicide Quotes , Cancer Quotes

Rituals, anthropologists will tell us, are about transformation. The rituals we use for marriage, baptism or inaugurating a president are as elaborate as they are because we associate the ritual with a major life passage, the crossing of a critical threshold, or in other words, with transformation.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Baptism Quotes , President 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

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Opportunity Quotes , Airports 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Blessed Quotes , Thinking Quotes

When you win, you often lose, that's just a fact. There's no currency to straighten a warped spirit, or open a closed heart, a selfish heart.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Selfish Quotes , Heart Quotes

When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Men Quotes , Mysterious Quotes

Being the first born gives you great patience.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Giving Quotes , Firsts Quotes

I love to read poetry but I haven't written anything that I'm willing to show anybody.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Shows Quotes , Love To Read 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Lucky Quotes , Purpose Quotes

What we need in medical schools is not to teach empathy, as much as to preserve it. The process of learning huge volumes of information about disease, of learning a specialised language, can ironically make one lose sight of the patient one came to serve; empathy can be replaced by cynicism.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , School Quotes , Sight Quotes