The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.

The wine of youth does not always clear with advancing years; sometimes it grows turbid.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

From the very early days of seeing patients, I noticed that many of them seemed to be concerned with issues of their mortality, and so the philosophy training I had taken began to seem rather important to me.

There have been hours in my unhappy life, many of them, when the contemplation of death as the end of earthly sorrow - of the grave as a resting place for the tired and worn out body - has been pleasant to dwell upon.

When my parents died, it became clear to me that there was an end in sight. Death was never a real thing to me. And then when that happened I realized I only have so many years left, if I'm lucky.

I am reconciled to my death, but I detest the mode.