241 Quotes by Paul Kalanithi

Words have a longevity I do not.

Even in having children in this new life, death played its part.

If boredom is, as Heidegger argued, the awareness of time passing, then surgery felt like the opposite: the intense focus made the arms of the clock seem arbitrarily placed. Two hours could feel like a minute.

Death, so familiar to me in my work, was now paying a personal visit.

At those critical junctures, the question is not simply whether to live or die but what kind of life is worth living.

Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving.

At those critical junctures, the question is not simply whether to live or die but what kind of life is worth living. Would you trade your ability – or your mother’s – to talk for a few extra months of mute life?

We each joked to close friends that the secret to saving a relationship is for one person to become terminally ill. Conversely, we knew that one trick to managing a terminal illness is to be deeply in love – to be vulnerable, kind, generous, grateful.

Moral duty has weight, things that have weight have gravity.