Abraham Verghese Quotes, School Quotes, Sight 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

What did it say when a man had fewer clothes than books?

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Book Quotes , Men 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Baptism Quotes , President 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.

6 years ago

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Be careful! Travel expands the mind and loosens the bowels.

6 years ago

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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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Country Quotes , Godly 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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Thank You Quotes , Blessed 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

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

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

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

6 years ago

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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?

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Cancer Quotes , Ocean Quotes

When I use the word 'healing', by that I mean that every disease has a physical element that we're very good at handling, but there's always a sense of the violation. 'Why me?' 'Why is my leg broken on the ski trip and not anyone else's?' And I think that medicine has done a terrible job of addressing that spiritual violation.

6 years ago

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

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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

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

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Ignorance was just as dynamic as knowledge, and it grew in the same proportion.

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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

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

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Abraham Verghese Quotes , Opportunity Quotes , Airports Quotes