When a grown man says he wants a cookie, he wants a cookie. The art of doctoring is negotiating with hope.
speech graduation empathy
Siddhartha Mukherjee
University of Southern California Commencement 2018, 2018
The art of medicine means telling someone what they may already know at some deep non-verbal level, something they may fear or vaguely anticipate, and communicating that something in a way that offers insight and compassion.
speech graduation empathy
Kenneth Kosik
UC Santa Barbara Humanities and Fine Arts Commencement 2016, 2016
There is one measure of civilization and it comes down to how people treat each other. Kindness is the basic ingredient.
speech graduation empathy
William Foege
Emory University Commencement 2016, 2016
The search for purpose is really a search for a place, not an idea. It is a search for a location in the world where you want to be part of making things better for others in your own small way.
speech graduation purpose
Atul Gawande
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Commencement 2014, 2014
Optimism is often dismissed as false hope. But there is also false hopelessness. That's the attitude that says we can't defeat poverty and disease. We absolutely can.
speech graduation empathy
Bill Gates
Stanford University Commencement 2014, 2014
Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will never be the same.
speech graduation balance
James Patterson
University of Florida Commencement 2013, 2013
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature.
speech graduation nature
Stephen R. Kellert
University of Western Sydney Commencement 2013, 2013
A much simpler way to get to the top is to sleep your way to the top. And I mean that literally.
speech graduation balance
Arianna Huffington
Smith College Commencement 2013, 2013
We do not think of our lives in a linear way. We remember series of moments — memorable moments — and together these moments make up the meshwork of our lives. Make each moment count.
speech graduation gratitude
Sanjay Gupta
University of Michigan Commencement 2012, 2012
They didn't fail less. They rescued more.
speech graduation resilience
Atul Gawande
Williams College Commencement 2012, 2012
You are imperfect. Your knowledge is never complete. Your skills are never infallible. Yet you have to act. You cannot let yourself become paralyzed by fear — yet you cannot blind yourself to failure either.
speech graduation courage
Atul Gawande
Williams College Commencement 2012, 2012
The only failure is the failure to rescue something. The difference between triumph and defeat isn't about your willingness to take the risk — it's about mastery of rescue afterwards.
speech graduation failure
Atul Gawande
Williams College Commencement 2012, 2012