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I grew up caring about people and I would say again, that's what made me who I am. I became a doctor for what I like to call healthy reasons. Not because I'm fascinated by the human body or want to understand death, but I like people and I want to help them. That also became my problem, because I couldn't help everyone, I couldn't fix everyone

Bernie Siegel

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Bernie Siegel
Age: 92
Born: 1932
Born: October 14
Motivational Speaker
Physician
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Bernie Siegel
Bernard Siegel
Would
Helping
Couldn
Like
Also
Healthy
People
Problem
Grew
Fascinated
Body
Call
Doctor
Reason
Help
Caring
Human
Everyone
Doctors
Humans
Understand
Reasons
Made
Death
Became

More quotes by Bernie Siegel

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By relaxation, I don't mean falling asleep in front of the TV set or unwinding with friends. The kind I'm talking about is a quieting of mental activity and withdrawal of body and mind from external stimulation.
Bernie Siegel
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I know patients who bring a dozen roses to the doctor's office. And, boy, the next visit, nobody forgets that. You come in and hey - 'Here's the lady who brought the roses' vs. 'Here's the lung cancer.'
Bernie Siegel
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Your body loves you, but if you do not love your life, it will end it far sooner, thinking it is doing you a favor.
Bernie Siegel
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Information doesn't mean a thing to people without inspiration.
Bernie Siegel
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When my body gets to the point where I can no longer function or feel gratitude, then I'll leave it and become grateful again. But until then, I will appreciate what I have and not whine about what I don't have. I will feel blessed by life and the opportunity to help others see that they are blessed, too.
Bernie Siegel
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I truly feel the best doctors are ones who are criticized by nurses, patients and family. They do not make excuses and learn from their mistakes.
Bernie Siegel
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Most of us never stop to consider our blessings rather, we spend the day only thinking about our problems. But since you have to be alive to have problems, be grateful for the opportunity to have them.
Bernie Siegel
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There's very little that shocks me because I consider life a miracle so I guess what shocks me is that life exists. How the hell did we get here? What shocks me is that bacteria alter their genes and resist antibiotics and viruses resist vaccines.
Bernie Siegel
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If you talk to your body, it will listen.
Bernie Siegel
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You can see people draw the past, present and future as well as dream about it. You go to bed at night and have a dream that says there's a lump in your right breast and the doctor who is foreign, with an accent tells you it's cancer.
Bernie Siegel
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Traditional doctors say I'm a mystic. I don't deny it.
Bernie Siegel
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We destroy ourselves when we stop feeling. If you bury your feelings within you, you become a graveyard.
Bernie Siegel
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The simple truth is that happy people generally don't get sick
Bernie Siegel
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Feelings aroused by the touch of someones hand, the sound of music, the smell of a flower, a beautiful sunset, a work of art, love, laughter, hope and faith - all work on both the unconscious and the conscious aspects of the self, and they have physiological consequences as well.
Bernie Siegel
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If you watch how nature deals with adversity, continually renewing itself, you can't help but learn.
Bernie Siegel
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I am convinced that unconditional love is the most powerful known stimulant of the immune system. If I told patients to raise their blood levels of immune globulins or killer T cells, no one would know how. But if I can teach them to love themselves and others fully, the same changes happen automatically. The truth is: love heals.
Bernie Siegel
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What I try to get physically healthy people to understand is that they're going to die someday. There is no way out. And dying isn't failure, but not living is, so make use of your time. Don't keeping waiting.
Bernie Siegel
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Thoughts are chemical. They can either kill us or cure us.
Bernie Siegel
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The tree doesn't die, nor do I when you cut off a branch or a finger, we both heal so we don't lose all the sap or blood. That to me is total shock. Also that water defies the laws of physics by becoming less dense when frozen. Life really is a miracle and all the things that are been built into us through it.
Bernie Siegel
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Love and kindness are the basis of my religious beliefs. The rituals and outward signs are not as important as one's actions and deeds. Religion should be a path to God, not something to fight about.
Bernie Siegel