Empathy can be replaced by cynicism.
ABRAHAM VERGHESEThis 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
More Abraham Verghese Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Patients know in a heartbeat if they’re getting a clumsy exam.
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She died chasing greatness and never saw it each time it was in her hand, so she kept seeking it elsewhere, but never understood the work required to get it or to keep it.
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For one who has an interest in the body as text, airports are treasure troves of information.
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Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.
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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.
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And then by the end of the third year they completely lose that ability, partly because we teach them the specialized language of medicine.
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You live it forward, but understand it backward.
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Ignorance was just as dynamic as knowledge, and it grew in the same proportion.
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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.
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There is that lovely feeling of one reader telling another, ‘You must read this.’
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I’ve had my share of angels.
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Rituals, anthropologists will tell us, are about transformation.
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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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE