KeenBrain
KeenBrain
KeenBrain

Paul Kalanithi Quotes


Share this page on

Quotes by Paul Kalanithi

Showing 1-10 of 25 Quotes by Paul Kalanithi

During my sojourn in ironclad atheism, the primary arsenal leveled against Christianity had been its failure on empirical grounds. Surely, enlightened reason offered a more coherent cosmos. Surely, Occam's razor cut the faithful free from blind faith. There is no proof of God; therefore, it is unreasonable to believe in God.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn't know when. After the diagnosis, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn't know when. But now I knew it acutely.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Before operating on a patient's brain... I must first understand his mind: his identity, his values, what makes his life worth living, and what devastation makes it reasonable to let that life end.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


When there's no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon's only tool.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


The diagnosis was immediate: Masses matting the lungs and deforming the spine. Cancer. In my neurosurgical training, I had reviewed hundreds of scans for fellow doctors to see if surgery offered any hope. I'd scribble in the chart 'Widely metastatic disease - no role for surgery,' and move on. But this scan was different: It was my own.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Everyone succumbs to finitude. I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state. Most ambitions are either achieved or abandoned; either way, they belong to the past. The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I have sat with countless patients and families to discuss grim prognoses: It's one of the most important jobs physicians have. It's easier when the patient is 94, in the last stages of dementia, and has a severe brain bleed. For young people like me - I am 36 - given a diagnosis of cancer, there aren't many words.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Science is based on reproducibility and manufactured objectivity. As strong as that makes its ability to generate claims about matter and energy, it also makes scientific knowledge inapplicable to the existential, visceral nature of human life, which is unique and subjective and unpredictable.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


The tricky part of illness is that, as you go through it, your values are constantly changing... You may decide you want to spend your time working as a neurosurgeon, but two months later, you may want to learn to play the saxophone or devote yourself to the church. Death may be a one-time event, but living with terminal illness is a process.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


People react differently to hearing 'Procedure X has a 70 percent chance of survival' and 'Procedure Y has a 30 percent chance of death.' Phrased that way, people flock to Procedure X, even though the numbers are the same.

~Paul Kalanithi

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Writer

Born: April 1st, 1977

Links

Find Paul Kalanithi on Amazon

Related Authors

Ray Bradbury
Dale Carnegie
Robert A. Heinlein
Napoleon Hill
Elbert Hubbard
H. L. Mencken
Dr. Seuss
William Arthur Ward

Popular Authors

Woody Allen George W. Bush Charlie Chaplin Steve Harvey John Lennon John Locke Bob Marley Charles R. Swindoll

Change your beliefs...change your life.

Get a related quote or insight every day.

(it's 100% free)

Follow Us On

Today's Birthdays

1694 - Voltaire

1768 - Friedrich Schleiermacher

1787 - Bryan Procter

1863 - Arthur Quiller-Couch

1870 - Alexander Berkman

1886 - Harold Nicolson

1889 - Hugh Kingsmill

1898 - Rene Magritte

1904 - Coleman Hawkins

1907 - Jim Bishop

Birthdays on November 21st
All Birthdays

Popular Topics

Dating Death Famous Fitness Marriage Men Moving On Respect