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Abraham Verghese Quotes

Abraham Verghese is an American physician, author, Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is also the author of three best-selling books, two memoirs and a novel. In 2011, he was elected to be a member of the Institute of Medicine. He received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2015.

He was born in Ethiopia to parents from Kerala, India, who worked as teachers. In 2009, Knopf published his new book and first novel, Cutting for Stone. In 2010, Random House published the paperback version of the book and since that time, it has risen steadily up the bestseller charts, ranking #2 on The New York Times trade paperback fiction list on March 13, 2011. It has been on The New York Times list for well over two years. In 2014, Verghese received the 19th Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities. Wikipedia  

✵ 1955
Abraham Verghese photo

Works

Cutting for Stone
Cutting for Stone
Abraham Verghese
Cutting for Stone
Cutting for Stone
Abraham Verghese
Abraham Verghese: 20 quotes2 likes

Famous Abraham Verghese Quotes

“Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. It is only when you stop and look to the rear that you see the corpse caught under your wheel.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“To be around someone whose self-confidence is more than what our first glance led us to expect is seductive.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“Life is like that. You live it forward but understand it backward.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Variant: You live it forward, but understand it backward.
Source: Cutting for Stone

“Make something beautiful of your life.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“Tell us please, what treatment in an emergency is administered by ear?"…. I met his gaze and I did not blink. "Words of comfort," I said to my father.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

Abraham Verghese Quotes

“God will judge us, Mr. Harris, by--by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings. I don't think God cares what doctrine we embrace.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“She died chasing greatness and never saw it each time it was in her hand, so she kept seeking it elsewhere, but never understood the work required to get it or to keep it.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“A rich man's faults are covered with money, but a surgeon's faults are covered with earth.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“No blade can puncture the human heart like the well-chosen words of a spiteful son.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“… guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“Geography is destiny.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“When you win, you often lose, that's just a fact. There's no currency to straighten a warped spirit, or open a closed heart, a selfish heart…”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

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