QuoteProject
The flip side of suicide is that it leaves a lingering question in the minds of the people who survived. It's like a cancer that's metastasized. The suicide is the cancer and the metastasis is all these people saying, Why? Why? Why?
Abraham Verghese
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Suicide impacts not only the individual but also leaves lasting questions and suffering in those left behind.

This quote by Abraham Verghese highlights the profound impact of suicide on the loved ones of the deceased. It suggests that while the act may be seen as an escape for the individual, it leaves a trail of pain and confusion for survivors, who are left grappling with unanswered questions and emotional turmoil, much like the spread of cancer in the body, affecting many beyond the initial point of suffering.

Themes

SuicideImpactSufferingSurvivorsQuestionsPain

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a mental health awareness campaign to emphasize the broader effects of suicide.

More from Abraham Verghese

We're losing a ritual. We're losing a ritual that I believe is transformative, transcendent, and is at the heart of the patient-physician relationship.
Abraham VergheseRead
I still find the best way to understand a hospitalized patient whose care I am taking over is not by staring at the computer screen but by going to see the patient; it's only at the bedside that I can figure out what is important.
Abraham VergheseRead
It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.
Abraham VergheseRead
My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they'll leave in people's hearts. They realize the no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate, can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.
Abraham VergheseRead
You are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can can play the 'Gloria'? No, not Bach's 'Gloria.' Yours! Your 'Gloria' lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.
Abraham VergheseRead
Students undergo a conversion in the third year of medical school - not pre-clinical to clinical, but pre-cynical to cynical.
Abraham VergheseRead

Similar quotes

Great people plant trees they'll never sit under.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
The great and rare mystics of the past . . . were, in fact, ahead of their time, and are still ahead of ours. In other words, they most definitely are not figures of the past. They are figures of the future.
Ken WilberRead
The way you are with others every day, regardless of their status, is the true test of faith.
Brennan ManningRead
A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it.
William IngeRead
Every moment is as real as every other. Every 'now,' when you say, 'This is the real moment,' is as real as every other 'now' - and therefore all the moments are just out there. Just as every location in space is out there, I think every moment in time is out there, too.
Brian GreeneRead
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! _x000D_ My sin, not in part but the whole, _x000D_ Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, _x000D_ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Horatio SpaffordRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.