When Breath Becomes Air Quotes That Celebrate Life
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“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi is a poignant memoir that reflects on life, mortality, and the pursuit of meaning. Here are some quotes from the book that celebrate life:
“The tricky part of illness is that, as you go through it, your values are constantly changing. You try to figure out what matters to you, and then you keep figuring it out. It felt like someone had taken away my credit card and I was having to learn how to budget.”
“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”
“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.”
“Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.”
“The physician’s job is often not to save, but to bear witness.”
“Life wasn’t about avoiding suffering. Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving.”
“The call to protect life—and not merely life but another’s identity; it is perhaps not too much to say another’s soul—was obvious in its sacredness.”
“The physician’s obligation 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.”
These quotes capture the essence of “When Breath Becomes Air” and underscore the importance of embracing life, finding purpose, and navigating the complexities of mortality.