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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.

Abraham Verghese

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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Eerie Feeling Mentor Mouthpiece Old Room Shoe
By visiting patients in their home, by helping them come to terms with their illness, I could heal when I could not cure.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Helping Home Patient
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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Associate Baptism Elaborate Inauguration Marriage President Ritual
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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Angry Dream Feeling Hurt Loved Myself Togetherness Unreasonable
The crookedness of the serpent is still straight enough to slide through the snake hole.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Crookedness Enough Serpent Slide Snake
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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Administered Blink Comfort Ear Emergency Father Gaze Treatment
Certainly when I got to medical school, I had role models of the kind of physicians I wanted to be.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Certainly Medical Model Physician Role School Uncle
Sometimes this wound occurs at the moment of birth, sometimes it happens later. We are all fixing what is broken.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Birth Broken Fixing Moment Occur Sometimes Wound
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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Access Blessed Care Country Health Insured Kind Thinking
Ignorance was just as dynamic as knowledge, and it grew in the same proportion.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Dynamic Grew Ignorance Knowledge Proportion Same
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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Conscious Exact Moment Professor Teacher Trotting Year
To be around someone whose self-confidence is more than what our first glance led us to expect is seductive.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Confidence Expect Around First Glance More Seductive Self
When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Call Hardly Himself Man Mysterious Mystery
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?
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Ancient Apprentice Become Down Due Look Master Paid Ship
My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they’ll leave in people’s hearts.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Deathbed Heart Mean Patient People Regret VIP
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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE

Another Day Gift Inevitable Paradise Pillow Precious Pronouncement Settled

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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