“Literature provided the best account of the life of the mind, while neuroscience laid down the most elegant rules of the brain.” LifeMindPhilosophyLiteratureBrainMedicine Book:When Breath Becomes Air Source: When Breath Becomes Air
“When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man's days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.” LifeChildrenDeathMeaning Book:When Breath Becomes Air Source: When Breath Becomes Air
“Though I felt dissatisfied, at least I felt like somebody, a person, rather than a thing exemplifying the second law of thermodynamics (all order tends toward entropy, decay, etc.).” LifeUniversePhysicsEntropyThermodynamics Author:Paul Kalanithi
“By the end of medical school, most students tended to focus on "lifestyle" specialities - those with more humane hours, higher salaries, and lower pressures - the idealism of their med school application essays tempered or lost. As graduation neared and we sat down, in a Yale tradition, to re-write our commencement oath - a melding of the words of Hippocrates, Maimonides, Osler, along with a few other great medical forefathers - several students argued for the removal of language insisting that we place our patients' interests above our own. (The rest of us didn't allow this discussion to continue for long. The words stayed. This kind of egotism struck me as antithetical to medicine and, it should be noted, entirely reasonable. Indeed, this is how 99 percent of people select their jobs: pay, work environment, hours. But thats the point. Putting lifestyle first is how you find a job - not a calling).” LifeDeathMedicine Book:When Breath Becomes Air Source: When Breath Becomes Air
“She was worried about it too. She was upset because I wasn't talking to her about it. She was upset because I'd promised her one life, and given her another.” LifeTalkingWorriedUpsetPromised Book:When Breath Becomes Air Source: When Breath Becomes Air