To be around someone whose self-confidence is more than what our first glance led us to expect is seductive.

This is my life, I thought...I have excised the cancer from my past, cut it out; I have crossed the high plains, descended into the desert, traversed oceans, and planted my feet in new soil; I have been the apprentice, paid my dues, and have just become master of my ship. But when I look down, why do I see the ancient, tarred, mud-stained slippers that I buried at the start of the journey still stuck to my feet?

She died chasing greatness and never saw it each time it was in her hand, so she kept seeking it elsewhere, but never understood the work required to get it or to keep it.

I always wondered if the good people who send us bibles really think that hookworm and hunger are healed by scripture? Our patients are illiterate.

We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation.

How we treat the least of our brethren,... that's the measure of this country.

He was teaching me how to die, just as he'd taught me how to live.