Paul Farmer Quotes

Quotes about:

• The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.

  Paul Farmer

  Nature, Ideas, Roots

  107 Copy quote

• If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right?

  Paul Farmer

  Health, Care, Human Rights

  Paul Farmer (2004). “Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor”, p.206, Univ of California Press

  76 Copy quote

• For me, an area of moral clarity is: you're in front of someone who's suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act.

  Paul Farmer

  Suffering, Tools, Moral

  63 Copy quote

• With rare exceptions, all of your most important achievements on this planet will come from working with others- or, in a word, partnership.

  Paul Farmer

  Achievement, Important, Working With Others

  Paul Farmer (2013). “To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation”, p.58, Univ of California Press

  53 Copy quote

• The essence of global health equity is the idea that something so precious as health might be viewed as a right.

  Paul Farmer

  Essence, Ideas, Might

  55 Copy quote

• God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. You want to see where Christ crucified abides today? Go to where the poor are suffering and fighting back, and that's where He is.

  Paul Farmer

  Fighting, Giving, Suffering

  "Mountains Beyond Mountains". Book by Tracy Kidder, 2003.

  53 Copy quote

• If I am hungry, that is a material problem; if someone else is hungry, that is a spiritual problem.

  Paul Farmer

  Spiritual, Problem, Hungry

  40 Copy quote

• What I can argue is that no one should have to die of a disease that is treatable.

  Paul Farmer

  Should Have, Disease, Arguing

  42 Copy quote

• That's when I feel most alive, when I'm helping people.

  Paul Farmer

  People, Alive, Helping

  32 Copy quote

• But if you're asking my opinion, I would argue that a social justice approach should be central to medicine and utilized to be central to public health. This could be very simple: the well should take care of the sick.

  Paul Farmer

  Simple, Medicine, Justice

  40 Copy quote

• We have to design a health delivery system by actually talking to people and asking, 'What would make this service better for you?' As soon as you start asking, you get a flood of answers.

  Paul Farmer

  Talking, People, Design

  "The Human Element: Melinda Gates and Paul Farmer on Designing Global Health". Interview with Caitlin Roper, www.wired.com. November 12, 2013.

  35 Copy quote

• The poorest parts of the world are by and large the places in which one can best view the worst of medicine and not because doctors in these countries have different ideas about what constitutes modern medicine. It's the system and its limitations that are to blame.

  Paul Farmer

  Country, Medicine, Different Ideas

  33 Copy quote

• You can't have public health without a public health system. We just don't want to be part of a mindless competition for resources. We want to build back capacity in the system.

  Paul Farmer

  Competition, Want, Resources

  "Q&A: Dr. Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl on recovery efforts in Haiti". Interview with Molly Hennessy-Fiske, latimesblogs.latimes.com. January 29, 2011.

  31 Copy quote

• The only way to do the human rights thing is to do the right thing medically.

  Paul Farmer

  Rights, Way, Humans

  31 Copy quote

• ...In a world riven by inequity, medicine could be viewed as social justice work.

  Paul Farmer

  Medicine, Justice, World

  Paul Farmer (2004). “Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor”, p.157, Univ of California Press

  8 Copy quote

• It is very expensive to give bad medical care to poor people in a rich country.

  Paul Farmer

  Country, Rich Countries, People

  "Founder, Partners In Health". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. July 03, 2009.

  27 Copy quote

• There is nothing wrong with underlining personal agency, but there is something unfair about using personal responsibility as a basis for assigning blame while simultaneously denying those who are being blamed the opportunity to exert agency in their lives

  Paul Farmer

  Responsibility, Opportunity, Agency

  Paul Farmer (2001). “Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues”, p.84, Univ of California Press

  27 Copy quote

• Equity is the only acceptable goal

  Paul Farmer

  Goal, Equity, Acceptable

  15 Copy quote

• The idea that because you're born in Haiti you could die having a child. The idea that because you're born in you know Malawi your children may go to bed hungry. We want to take some of the chance out of that.

  Paul Farmer

  Children, Ideas, Haiti

  34 Copy quote

• People call me a saint and I think, I have to work harder. Because a saint would be a great thing to be.

  Paul Farmer

  Hard Work, Thinking, People

  "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World". Book by Tracy Kidder, 2004.

  23 Copy quote

• I think, sometimes, that I'm going nuts, and that perhaps there is something good about blocking clean water for those who have none, making sure that illiterate children remain so, and preventing the resuscitation of the public health sector in the country most in need of it. Lunacy is what it is.

  Paul Farmer

  Country, Children, Block

  7 Copy quote

• We want to be on the winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, it is not worth it. So we fight the long defeat.

  Paul Farmer

  Team, Fighting, Winning

  24 Copy quote

• I mean, everybody should have access to medical care. And, you know, it shouldn't be such a big deal.

  Paul Farmer

  Mean, Should Have, Care

  9 Copy quote

• The biggest public health challenge is rebuilding health systems. In other words, if you look at cholera or maternal mortality or tuberculosis in Haiti, they're major problems in Haiti, but the biggest problem is rebuilding systems.

  Paul Farmer

  Challenges, Tuberculosis, Looks

  "Q&A: Dr. Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl on recovery efforts in Haiti". Interview with Molly Hennessy-Fiske, latimesblogs.latimes.com. January 29, 2011.

  62 Copy quote

• I feel it's part of my job to make the problems of the poor compelling.

  Paul Farmer

  Jobs, Problem, Poor

  9 Copy quote

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