I learned about a lot of things in medical school, but mortality wasn't one of them.

Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.

Our reluctance to honestly examine the experience of aging and dying has increased the harm we inflict on people and denied them the basic comforts they most need.

No matter what measures are taken, doctors will sometimes falter, and it isn't reasonable to ask that we achieve perfection. What is reasonable is to ask that we never cease to aim for it.

You may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

You can't make a recipe for something as complicated as surgery. Instead, you can make a recipe for how to have a team that's prepared for the unexpected.

Arriving at an acceptance of one's mortality is a process, not an epiphany.

Courage is strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped. Wisdom is prudent strength.

Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance.

Life is choices, and they are relentless. No sooner have you made one choice than another is upon you.

This is the reality of intensive care: at any point, we are as apt to harm as we are to heal.

Home is where your heart is.

A radio was playing quietly. Nobody was listening. It was there to drown out the silence.

We will not be silent. We will not obey. We will not allow our government to destroy our humanity.

They say that hens do cackle loudest when there is nothing vital in the eggs they have laid.

Of course life has no point. If it had, man would not be free.

If at the first sign of infection, you always jump in with antibiotics, you do not give the immune system a chance to grow stronger.

The extreme side of my personality, which I chose to sort of display, was snowballing and getting a life of its own. It was like looking in a mirror and not recognising myself.

Sun's up, uh huh, looks okay - the world survives into another day, and I'm thinking about eternity. Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me.

Beneath all the wealth of detail in a geological map lies an elegant, orderly simplicity.

Little Red was a tender young morsel, and the wolf knew she would be even tastier than the old woman.