241 Quotes by Paul Kalanithi

Moral speculation was puny compared to moral action.

In these moments, I acted not, as I most often did, as death’s enemy, but as its ambassador.

The most obvious might be an impulse to frantic activity: to “live life to its fullest,” to travel, to dine, to achieve a host of neglected ambitions. Part of the cruelty of cancer, though, is not only that it limits your time; it also limits your energy, vastly reducing the amount you can squeeze into a day. It is a tired hare who now races. And even if I had the energy, I prefer a more tortoiselike approach. I plod, I ponder. Some days, I simply persist.

Putting lifestyle first is how you find a job – not a calling.

I had passed from the subject to the direct object of every sentence of my life.

We are never so wise as when we live in this moment. –.

Be ready. Be seated. See what courage sounds like. See.

In the silences between his words, listen to what you have to say back. Therein lies his message.

When there is no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon’s only tool.