Favorite Quotes
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - HL Mencken
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"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius
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"The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease" - Sir William Osler
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" The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power." - Bob Sutton
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them - well, I have others." - Groucho Marx
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them" - Friedrich Nietzsche
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"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." - Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
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"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it." - Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a
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"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing." - Thomas Sowell
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"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - HL Mencken
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"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow
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"A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves." - Herbie Hancock
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"There are no facts, only interpretations." - Nietzsche
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"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." - Anatole France
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"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ====
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Dec - 19
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Posts Tagged ‘Why do medicine’
Is medicine worth it?
10, Jun 2009
My top post of all time addresses this question – Why become a doctor?
I received a recent email from a 20 year old college student who asked me about this issue. As I have pondered this email, I searched for the proper words. Readers know that I love being a physician. But this student asked [...]
- In: Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine
Why become a doctor – more issues
21, Nov 2008
Please first read my classic post – Why become a doctor redux?
Recently I have had two important questions asked about this subject.
I wanna know is it worth it to become a doctor? How much money do they got a year like a family doctor or something in that area? How many years does it take [...]
- In: Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine
The Pitfalls of Linking Doctors’ Pay to Performance
The program is called pay for performance, P4P for short. Employers and insurers, including Medicare, have started about 100 such initiatives across the country. The general intent is to reward doctors for providing better care.
For example, doctors receive bonuses if they prescribe ACE inhibitor drugs to patients [...]
- In: Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine
On becoming a doctor – why?
10, Apr 2008I wrote about this 3 years ago. Interestingly with my new plugin, I find that searching this question is still very popular. Today someone wrote this question:
Is it at all possible to keep a balance in a life of medicine? can you have the best of both worlds? having time to travel and spend with [...]
- In: Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine
Reminding us why
1, Aug 2005Sometimes medical students and housestaff forget why they decided to become physicians. And then sometimes patients remind them why. A student of solace and love
I was a fourth-year medical student when I met the two patients. The rotation, a rite of passage, is the month or two during the last year of medical [...]
- In: General| Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine
Why become a doctor redux?
7, Apr 2005A reader asks -
So I'm curious, since so many doctors I've talked to (both young and old) say "don't do it, it's not worth it” can you point to something you'd say makes it worth it? Is there something different about the path you've chosen, or is it more about your attitude? I realize that [...]
- In: General| Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine
Why become a doctor? 2005
7, Apr 2005I often write about why I am so happy that I choose medicine as a profession. Some physicians do not share my ongoing joy. Some enjoy the profession for a period of time – then something changes. The Bioethics Discussion Blog has this interesting post on this topic – Uncertainty and the Life of [...]
- In: General| Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine
Sometimes we cannot really talk about our jobs
28, Dec 2004Being a physician has challenges and benefits. I had this explicit discussion with my new intern and resident this morning (special holiday schedule team). When we walk into a patient’s room and introduce ourselves, the patient and family generally like and respect us. We start out receiving the benefit of doubt and [...]
- In: General| Medical Rants
- Tags: Why do medicine