Quotessence
Home / Authors / Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande Quotes

Surgeon

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleMedicineCareDeathDoctorsDyingIfsPatientIllnessAgingHumansKindMedicalProblemRiskTeamThinkingAffordableAutonomyChoices

Famous Atul Gawande Quotes

“In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments-which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.”

PeopleHumansMayEndsWholeMomentsStoriesHappensPainLife IsPurposeCausesDifficultHuman BeingsSleepPleasureLevelsViewsExistenceMinutesMissingAspectEmptyFundamentalsAverageDeterminedMeaningfulSignificantThings HappenPlusHappy LifeDevotedMeasurementHuman ExistenceArcsPain And PleasureDifficult LifeSignificant Moments
Book:Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End
Create image

“People underestimate the importance of dilligence as a virtue. No doubt it has something to do with how supremely mundane it seems. It is defined as "the constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken."... Understood, however, as the prerequisite of great accomplishment, diligence stands as one of the most difficult challenges facing any group of people who take on tasks of risk and consequence. It sets a high, seemingly impossible, expectation for performance and human behavior.”

PeopleHumansSeemsDifficultChallengesEffortVirtueDoubtImpossibleRiskGroupsBehaviorExpectationsUnderstoodConsequenceTasksPerformancesImportanceConstantAccomplishDefinedAccomplishmentNo DoubtUnderestimateHuman BehaviorEarnestMundaneDiligencePrerequisitesDifficult ChallengesGreat Accomplishment
Author:Atul Gawande
Create image

“At times, in medicine, you feel you are inside a colossal and impossibly complex machine whose gears will turn for you only according to their own arbitrary rhythm. The notion that human caring, the effort to do better for people, might make a difference can seem hopelessly naive. But it isn't.”

PeopleFeelsHumansSeemsMightTurnsDifferencesEffortMachinesMedicineComplexesNotionCaringMedicalRhythmMaking A DifferenceNaiveArbitraryGearsColossal
Book:Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
Create image