Neurosurgeons Quotes

Here is the treasure chest of the world - the public library, or a bookstore. ~ Ben Carson

The brain is the organ of destiny. It holds within its humming mechanism secrets that will determine the future of the human race. ~ Wilder Penfield

While all doctors treat diseases, neurosurgeons work in the crucible of identity: every operation on the brain is, by necessity, a manipulation of the substance of our selves, and every conversation with a patient undergoing brain surgery cannot help but confront this fact. In addition, to the patient and family, the brain surgery is usually the most dramatic event they have ever faced and, as such, has the impact of any major life event. At those critical junctures, the question is not simply whether to live or die but what kind of life is worth living. Would you trade your ability - or your mother's - to talk for a few extra months of mute life? The expansion of your visual blind spot in exchange for eliminating the small possibility of a fatal brain hemorrhage? Your right hand's function to stop seizures? How much neurologic suffering would you let your child endure before saying that death is preferable? Because the brain mediates our experience of the world, any neurosurgical problem forces a patient and family, ideally with a doctor as a guide, to answer this question: What makes life meaningful enough to go on living? ~ Paul Kalanithi

Happiness doesn't result from what we get, but from what we give. ~ Ben Carson

I had this fantasy of becoming a neurosurgeon. You know, the normal Jewish boy fantasy, but I wanted to be a neurosurgeon for some reason. So I started in this unpleasant way. I was an assistant to the coroner, opening up corpses, taking the innards out, opening skulls, taking the brains out. ~ Joseph Brodsky

I remember telling a neurosurgeon, "Don't give me too much information, because at the moment my ignorance is my best asset." ~ Christopher Reeve

You don't want your neurosurgeon to have doubts about the meaning of it all while he or she is operating on your brain. ~ Aleksandar Hemon

Laughter and irony are at heart reminders that we are not prisoners in this world, but voyagers through it. ~ Eben Alexander

What had I expected of the first child? Everything. Rocket scientist. Neurosurgeon. Designated hitter. We talked wisely at cocktail parties about the sad mistake our mothers had made in pinning all their hopes and dreams on us. We were full of it. ~ Anna Quindlen

I think often there is great rivalry between neurosurgeons and cardiac surgeons. I think I maybe have a bit of bias with neurosurgeons' opinion that nothing tops neurosurgery! But that makes for a quite interesting conflict between the two. ~ James Nesbitt

An important verity about knowledge is that the brain works most effectively with consciously retained information. We more easily remember what we want to recall later. When we feed our fourteen billion brain cells with information that will enrich us and help others, we are really learning to Think Big. ~ Ben Carson