Abraham Verghese Quotes - Page 3

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Cancer Country Destiny Feelings Healthcare Heart Inspiration

Patients know in a heartbeat if they're getting a clumsy exam.

Abraham Verghese

Patient, Exam, Heartbeat

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I believe in black holes. I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the last swirl around the drain.

Abraham Verghese

Believe, Past, Black

"Cutting for Stone". Book by Abraham Verghese, February 2009.

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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.

Abraham Verghese

Greatness, Hands, Saws

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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

Selfish, Heart, Winning

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In America, we have always taken it as an article of faith that we 'battle' cancer; we attack it with knives, we poison it with chemotherapy or we blast it with radiation. If we are fortunate, we 'beat' the cancer. If not, we are posthumously praised for having 'succumbed after a long battle.'

Abraham Verghese

Cancer, Taken, Knives

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A beautiful literary collection that tells of today's country doctor, somewhat removed from our romantic black-bag image of days gone by, but still fulfilling an essential need in caring for spread-out populations. At times, with today's advances in technology, medicine in rural America looks very like it does in America's cities, but the variety of practices is enormous. The Country Doctor Revisited captures the trials and tribulations of medicine, but also the satisfaction and the extraordinary rewards that come to those who embrace such a practice.

Abraham Verghese

Beautiful, Country, Caring

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She felt the familiar calmness of an emergency, but she understood the falseness of that feeling, now that it was her life at stake.

Abraham Verghese

Medicine, Feelings, Emergencies

Abraham Verghese (2012). “Cutting for Stone”, p.42, Random House India

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I'm a great believer in geography being destiny.

Abraham Verghese

Destiny, Geography, Believer

"A Novel That's the Best Medicine". Interview with Tina Brown, www.thedailybeast.com. February 11, 2009.

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How we treat the least of our brethren,... that's the measure of this country.

Abraham Verghese

Country, Treats, Brethren

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She had always assumed that she would have years to sort out the meaning of life... As she bent over the child she realized that the tragedy of death had to do entirely with what was left unfulfilled.

Abraham Verghese

Children, Years, Tragedy

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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. Now, as to the problem of how much health care costs and how we reform health care ... it is another story altogether.

Abraham Verghese

Blessed, Thinking, America

Interview with John McMurtrie, www.sfgate.com. March 14, 2010.

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

Abraham Verghese

Shows, Love To Read, Willing

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If 'ecstasy' meant the sudden intrusion of the sacred into the ordinary, then it had just happened to me.

Abraham Verghese

Ordinary, Sacred, Intrusion

Abraham Verghese (2012). “Cutting for Stone”, p.375, Random House India

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Certainly when I got to medical school, I had role models of the kind of physicians I wanted to be. I had an uncle who, looking back, was probably not the most-educated physician around but he carried it off so well.

Abraham Verghese

Uncles, School, Role Models

"A Novel That's the Best Medicine". Interview with Tina Brown, www.thedailybeast.com. February 11, 2009.

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Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals

Abraham Verghese

Meals

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...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

Abraham Verghese

Guilt, Action, Righteous

Abraham Verghese (2012). “Cutting for Stone”, p.139, Random House India

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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.

Abraham Verghese

Country, Godly, Fighting

Abraham Verghese (2012). “Cutting for Stone”, p.115, Random House India

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When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious.

Abraham Verghese

Men, Mysterious, Mystery

Abraham Verghese (2012). “Cutting for Stone”, p.26, Random House India

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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. I've had my share of angels.

Abraham Verghese

Thank You, Blessed, Angel

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

Abraham Verghese

Memories, Stories, Alive

Abraham Verghese (2012). “Cutting for Stone”, p.272, Random House India

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There is that lovely feeling of one reader telling another, 'You must read this.' I've always wanted to write a book like that, with the sense that you are contributing to the discourse in middle America, a discourse that begins at a book club in a living room, but then spreads. That is meaningful to me.

Abraham Verghese

Meaningful, Book, Writing

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I joke, but I only half joke, that if you come to one of our hospitals missing a limb, no one will believe you till they get a CAT scan, MRI, or orthopedic consult.

Abraham Verghese

Motivation, Believe, Inspiration

"A doctor's touch". TED Talk, www.ted.com. July 2011.

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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.

Abraham Verghese

Spiritual, Jobs, Mean

"A Novel That's the Best Medicine". Interview with Tina Brown, www.thedailybeast.com. February 11, 2009.

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

Abraham Verghese

Mind, Bowels, Be Careful

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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.

Abraham Verghese

Paradise, Another Day, Precious Gifts

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Born: 1955
Occupation: Physician
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