I had learned that every patient has the right to hope, despite long odds, and it was my role to help nurture that hope.

Help, then, is the ballast that keeps us steady, that recognizes where along the path are the dangers and pitfalls that can throw us off; hope tempers fear so we can recognize dangers and then bypass or endure them.

Hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them.

On average, physicians interrupt patients within eighteen seconds of when they begin telling their story.

Hope, true hope, has proved as important as any medication I might prescribe or any procedure I might perform.

There is an authentic biology of hope. Belief and expectation - the key elements of hope - can block pain by releasing the brain's endorphins and enkephalins, mimicking the effects of morphine.

To hope under the most extreme circumstances is an act of defiance that permits a person to live his life on his own terms. It is part of the human spirit to endure and give a miracle a chance to happen.