241 Quotes by Paul Kalanithi

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 seen, 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 and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.

I knew not to...ask "Why me?" (Answer: Why not me?)

The pain of failure had led me to understand that technical excellence was a moral requirement. Good intentions were not enough, not when so much depended on my skills, when the difference between tragedy and triumph was defined by one or two millimeters.

Literature...provide[s] the richest material for moral reflection.

Ngày thì dài, nhưng năm thì ngắn

To make science the arbiter of metaphysics is to banish not only God from the world but also love, hate, meaning

The physician's duty is not to stave off death or return patients to their old lives, but to take into our arms a patient and family whose lives have disintegrated and work until they can stand back up and face, and make sense of, their own existence.

She had done what I had challenged myself to do as a doctor years earlier: accepted mortal responsibility for my soul and returned me to a point where I could return to myself.

Detailed statistics are for research halls, not hospital rooms...It is important to be accurate, but you must always leave some room for hope.