Abraham Verghese Quotes, Ordinary Quotes, Sacred Quotes

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Ordinary Quotes , Sacred Quotes

She had always assumed that she would have years to sort out the meaning of life... As she bent over the child she realized that the tragedy of death had to do entirely with what was left unfulfilled.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Children Quotes , Years 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

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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Meaningful Quotes , Book Quotes

When I wake to the gift of yet another sunrise my first thought is to rouse him and say, I owe you the sight of morning.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Morning Quotes , Sight 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Broken Quotes , Tasks 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

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Heart Quotes , Son Quotes

Your job is to preserve yourself, not to descend into their hole. It's a relief when you arrive at this place, the point of absurdity, because then you are free, you owe them nothing.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Jobs Quotes , Relief 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

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

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Regret Quotes , Heart Quotes

You live it forward, but understand it backward.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Life 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?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Cancer Quotes , Ocean 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 was taking care of people my age who were dying. The constant feeling, hearing from them, was that life is transient and can end very quickly, so don't postpone your dreams.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Dream Quotes , People Quotes

Being the first born gives you great patience.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Giving Quotes , Firsts Quotes

Yesterday misspent can't be recall'd Vanity makes beauty contemptible Wisdom is more valuable than riches.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Vanity Quotes , Yesterday 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Country Quotes , Godly Quotes