Courage is strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped. Wisdom is prudent strength. - Atul Gawande

This was not guilt: guilt is what you feel when you have done something wrong. What I felt was shame: I was what was wrong.

The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one’s life — to avoid becoming so diminished or dissipated or subjugated that who you are becomes disconnected from who you were or who you want to be.

Western medicine is dominated by a single imperative — the quest for machinelike perfection in the delivery of care.