Quotes by Abraham Verghese

About Abraham Verghese:

Abraham Verghese is a 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.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

You are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can can play the 'Gloria'? No, not Bach's 'Gloria.' Yours! Your 'Glori...

Abraham Verghese

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

Abraham Verghese

Superorganism. A biologist coined that word for our great African ant colonies, claiming that consciousness and intelligence resided not in the individual ant but in the collective ant mind. The trail of red taillights stretching to the horizon as da...

Abraham Verghese

...a world where a sparrow's fate and that of a man can be decided in the blink of a cat's eye, such is the true measure of time.

Abraham Verghese

Doubt is a first cousin to faith, Ghosh. To have faith, you have to suspend your disbelief.

Abraham Verghese

Children were the foot wedged in the closing door, the glimmer of hope that in reincarnation there would be some house to go to, even if one came back as a dog, or a mouse, or flea that lived on the bodies of men. If...there was a raising of the dead...

Abraham Verghese

A man is only as rich as the number of children he fathers. After all, what else do we leave behind in this world...

Abraham Verghese

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

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

Hema thought of Shiva, her personal deity, and how the only sensible response to the madness of life . . . was to cultivate a kind of madness within, to perform the mad dance of Shiva, . . . to rock and sway and flap six arms and six legs to an inner...

Abraham Verghese

The crookedness of the serpent is still straight enough to slide through the snake hole.

Abraham Verghese

Being the first born gives you great patience.

Abraham Verghese

Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can play the 'Gloria'?

Abraham Verghese

That's the funny thing about America--the blessed thing. As many people as there are to hold you back, there are angels whose humanity makes up for all the others. I've had my share of angels.

Abraham Verghese

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

Abraham Verghese

My father, for whose skills as a surgeon I have the deepest respect, says, "The operation with the best outcome is the one you decide not to do." Knowing when not to operate, knowing when I am in over my head, knowing when to call for the assistance ...

Abraham Verghese

I don't think you can be a physician and not see yourself reflected in your patient's illness. How would I deal with the kind of news I'd given Mr. Walters?

Abraham Verghese

The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, ...

Abraham Verghese

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

You live it forward, but understand it backward.

Abraham Verghese

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

Author Bio

  • NameAbraham Verghese
  • DescriptionPhysician, teacher, novelist
  • Born1955
  • CountryUnited States Of America; India
  • ProfessionWriter
  • WorksCutting For Stone
  • AwardsLambda Literary Award