In an emergency, what treatment is given by ear? Words of Comfort.
ABRAHAM VERGHESEI 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.
More Abraham Verghese Quotes
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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’.
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How we treat the least of our brethren,… that’s the measure of this country.
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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.
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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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There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed-
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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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Rituals, anthropologists will tell us, are about transformation.
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What we need in medical schools is not to teach empathy, as much as to preserve it.
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We must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness. And it can. but it can also deepen the wound.
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I’ve had my share of angels.
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Though I am fascinated by knowledge, I am even more fascinated by wisdom.
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I had an uncle who, looking back, was probably not the most-educated physician around but he carried it off so well.
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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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No matter what ailed you, you went to see the barber surgeon who wound up cupping you, bleeding you, purging you.
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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.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE






