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Your job is to preserve yourself, not to descend into their hole. It's a relief when you arrive at this place, the point of absurdity, because then you are free, you owe them nothing.
Abraham Verghese
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Abraham Verghese
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: January 1
Physician
University Teacher
Writer
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Relief
Holes
Point
Descend
Absurdity
Free
Arrive
Jobs
Hole
Place
Preserve
Nothing
Preserves
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The crookedness of the serpent is still straight enough to slide through the snake hole.
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We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot.
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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.
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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.
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What treatment in an emergency is administered by ear?
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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.
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God will judge us, Mr. Harris, by--by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings. I don't think God cares what doctrine we embrace.
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No blade can puncture the human heart like the well-chosen words of a spiteful son.
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The bottom line: health care reform is about the patient, not about the physician.
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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.
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For one who has an interest in the body as text, airports are treasure troves of information. It seems almost un-American to enjoy delays, and perhaps enjoy is not the best word, but certainly a delayed flight, if it does nothing else, allows one the opportunity to make prolonged observations about one's fellow travelers.
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The only way to know where you are is by where you have just been.
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By visiting patients in their home, by helping them come to terms with their illness, I could heal when I could not cure.
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Students undergo a conversion in the third year of medical school - not pre-clinical to clinical, but pre-cynical to cynical.
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To be around someone whose self-confidence is more than what our first glance led us to expect is seductive.
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When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious.
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