Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
On the day I swore to uphold the Hippocratic oath, the small hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I waited for lightning to strike. Who was I, vowing calmly among all these necktied young men to steal life out of nature's jaws, every old time we got half a chance and a paycheck?... I could not accept the contract: that every child born human upon this earth comes with a guarantee of perfect health and old age clutched in its small fist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the immense responsibility and ethical considerations of medical professionals in the face of human fragility.
Barbara Kingsolver's quote encapsulates the moral weight that medical professionals feel when they take the Hippocratic oath. It highlights the profound realization that, despite the aspiration for healing and preserving life, there is an inherent unpredictability and limitation in human health that cannot be guaranteed, evoking a sense of humility and introspection about the role of doctors in society.
Themes
HealthResponsibilityOathMedicineHumility
In practice
Example use cases
A healthcare leader could use this quote during a conference on medical ethics to highlight the profound responsibilities of physicians.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes →Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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