Hope, true hope, has proved as important as any medication I might prescribe or any procedure I might perform.

Hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them.

I had learned that every patient has the right to hope, despite long odds, and it was my role to help nurture that hope.

False hope can lead to intemperate choices and flawed decision making. True hope takes into account the real threats that exist and seeks to navigate the best path around them.

Hope can be imagined as a domino effect, a chain reaction, each increment making the next increase more feasible... There are moments of fear and doubt that can deflate it.

There is an authentic biology of hope. Belief and expectation - the key elements of hope - can block pain by releasing the brain's endorphins and enkephalins, mimicking the effects of morphine.

Hope is the elevating feeling we experience when we see - in the mind's eye - a path to a better future.

True hope is cleareyed. It sees all the difficulties that exist and all the potential for failure, but through that carves a realistic path to a better future.

Even when there is no longer hope for the body, there is always hope for the soul.

On average, physicians interrupt patients within eighteen seconds of when they begin telling their story.

Hope differs from optimism. Hope does not arise from being told to "think positively," or from hearing an overly rosy forecast. Hope, unlike optimism, is rooted in unalloyed reality.

Observing is the basis of wisdom.

There is no comfort anywhere for anyone who dreads to go home.

I said I'd be honest, I never said I'd be consistant.

I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.

Well sir, I may not be a for-real cowboy... But I am one hell of a stud!

I remember reading Paul Fussell my first year teaching at U of Hawai'i and being like, oh, it has a turn! Why didn't anyone tell me?

The apostles had no gold, but lots of glory. We have lots of gold, but no glory.

To have a major breakthrough in policy, you have to be able to stop and think.

Let your curiosity be greater than your fear.

I truly believe the American consumer doesn’t want to buy products made under abusive conditions.