Abraham Verghese Quotes, Broken Quotes, Tasks 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

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

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese 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

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'.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Zero Quotes , Two Quotes

The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Omission Quotes , World Quotes

Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Destiny Quotes , Omission 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , School Quotes , Sight 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

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.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Climbing Quotes , Escaping 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Technology Quotes , Feelings Quotes

There is that lovely feeling of one reader telling another, 'You must read this.' I've always wanted to write a book like that, with the sense that you are contributing to the discourse in middle America, a discourse that begins at a book club in a living room, but then spreads. That is meaningful to me.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Meaningful Quotes , Book Quotes

I was angry with myself because I still loved her, or at least I loved that dream of our togetherness. My feelings were unreasonable, irrational, and I couldn't change them. That hurt.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Dream Quotes , Hurt 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

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

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 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

To be around someone whose self-confidence is more than what our first glance led us to expect is seductive.

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Self Confidence Quotes , Seductive 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

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

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Paradise Quotes , Another Day Quotes