When I do an operation, it's half a dozen people. When it goes beautifully, it's like a symphony, with everybody playing their part.

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.

Unity is the intentional inclination to corporately control our destination. In other words, achieving the dream takes a team!

O Lord, renew my mind,

If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all.

In fact, a large majority of those have died and of those expected to die of AIDS, as well as of those who are infected with the virus, are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Wherever the good work is I'll go.

Every single religion that has ever been on the face of the Earth, ever, is a cult. That’s all they are.

As a grandmother, I've learned that you can't buy love. But your grandchildren are disappointed when you don't try.

Hollywood is portrayed in this super glamorous way, but when I see pictures of actresses going off the rails, it doesn't surprise me at all.

I am talking about poetry. It's like that line from [John] Yeats: I go back to "where all the ladders start/ In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart."

Never trust a man who says he is only a little crooked, and that the crookedness is exercised in your interest.