Medical School Quotes

“The midpoint in medicine between excessive emotional involvement with patients and a complete lack of empathy is not a simple one to locate.”
― Christine Montross, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab

“...Why is it, that from the moment you enter medical school to the moment you retire, that the only disorder you will ever diagnosis with a physics book - is obesity? This is biology folks, it's endocrinology, it's physiology - physics has nothing to do with it. The law of thermodynamics is always true, [but] the energy balance equation is irrelevant...”
― Gary Taubes

“It must be frustrating to survive the gauntlet that is our western medical schooling system only to one day come to the realization that you have been taught only to manage illness and disease instead of curing it.”
― Gary Hopkins

“As her body empties, I feel more and more hollow. I think I must offer her some explanation, but when I look to her face, there is clear and perfect water swirling from her open mouth, a question in a language I cannot comprehend.”
― Christine Montross, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab

“But the problem arises when instead of setting aside our natural reactions, they are denied altogether. Then the culture simply becomes superhuman. And thus is the realm of the superhuman there is no room for human frailty, and admission of it by one risks revealing the illusion of the many. So no one speaks up, and as a result each person believes that she is alone in her experience. To that end, we are left in a profession of untouchable greatness and infallibility, but one whose members kill themselves more than others.”
― Christine Montross, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab

“During my first semester of medical school, I cannot know how the emotional difficulty of the actions we perform on our cadavers will help us prepare for the agonizing moments we will observe in the lives of the living.”
― Christine Montross

“The young doctor should look about early for an avocation, a pastime, that will take him away from patients, pills, and potions.”
― William Osler

“Wrath watched the doctor go through the little monitoring room and out into the hall.
A moment later, she returned with the tall, thin physician. Havers bowed to him and to Beth through the glass and then went over to the monitors.
Both of them assumed the identical pose: bent at the waist, hands in the pockets, brows down low over their eyes.
“Do they coach them to do that in medical school?” Beth said.
“Funny, I was wondering the same thing.”

-Beth & Wrath”
― J.R. Ward, Lover Avenged

“Markarismenos apousia fovia or notata absentia phobia is the fear of being marked absent.(In the lecture)”
― Khosla N

“The most alarming moments of anatomy are not the bizarre, the unknown. They are the familiar.”
― Christine Montross, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab

“I feel your body, your sick and scared body. And I feel how it must be different from how it was, and how it is different from mine.”
― Christine Montross, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab

“Russell will never forget the reaction of Dantzel's mother when she discovered that he was having Dantzel work two jobs and bleeding her in between. I was said that behind every successful man is a surprised mother in law.”
― Spencer J. Condie

“Nobody just leaves medical school, especially given it's fiercely competitive to get in. But I had a sister who was a doctor, another who was a pharmacist, a brother who was an engineer. So my parents already had sensible children who would be able to make an actual living, and I think they felt comfortable sacrificing their one strange child.”
― Dr. Olatokunbo M. Famakinwa, Get Ready for Your White Coat: A Doctor's Guide on Getting into the Best Medical Schools

“And so, just as the humanity of our cadavers asserts itself in nail polish and tattoos, the inverse of humanity emerges in the body's utter lack of response to profound wounds.”
― Christine Montross, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab

“Dr. Philip Aning-Kuffour, said, be very aggressive for knowledge.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Modern medicine, as everyone knows by now, can be spectacularly successful and woefully inadequate. It alternately inspires praise and condemnation.”
― Larry Dossey

“Smile Before Pills (Sonnet 1402)

The only permanence we have is each other,
The only paradise we have is each other.
Heaven is as real as we are to each other,
Most potent medicine we have is each other.

One moment of love is time eternal,
100 years of hate are but ghost of wild past.
One rebellion of love is destiny in making,
100 rituals of hate are just monkeys' mass.

A smile works faster than a pill,
both metaphorically and physiologically.
Pills take hours to reach your bloodstream, while
a smile triggers instant release of neurochemicals,
which alleviates pain and facilitates immunity.

Sure, pills and prescriptions are a scientific boon,
They achieve wonders where organic powers fall short.
Yet, there is no prescription for a mannerless medico,
There is no pharmaceutical cure for a medical upstart.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets