Ambition, if it were to be savored, let alone achieved, had to be rooted in possibility.

the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven.

Work did bestow dignity, status, meaning. Wasn't that why people dreaded unemployment, why some men found retirement so traumatic?

you'd like the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That must be the most futile oath anyone ever swears.

Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk.

The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.