We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives.

Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.

Memories are the only real gifts we can leave our children.

I look for mystery and try to decipher it while knowing it is an impossible task. I look for memory, where Mystery lies.

For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.

We have to ask ourselves whether medicine is to remain a humanitarian and respected profession or a new but depersonalized science in the service of prolonging life rather than diminishing human suffering.

Consciously or not, we are all on a quest for answers, trying to learn the lessons of life. We grapple with fear and guilt. We search for meaning, love, and power. We try to understand fear, loss, and time. We seek to discover who we are and how we can become truly happy.