It is infinitely better to transplant a heart than to bury it to be devoured by worms.
Christiaan BarnardRead
Suffering isn't ennobling, recovery is.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Suffering may not make us better, but the process of recovering from it can lead to personal growth.
This quote emphasizes that while suffering is an inevitable part of life, it does not inherently elevate a person's character or situation. Instead, it is the journey of recovery and healing that can foster resilience, strength, and a deeper understanding of oneself, highlighting the transformative power of overcoming adversity.
Themes
SufferingRecoveryGrowthResilienceAdversity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about overcoming challenges at a motivational event.
More from Christiaan Barnard
All quotes βFor a dying man it is not a difficult decision [to agree to become the world's first heart transplant] ... because he knows he is at the end. If a lion chases you to the bank of a river filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water convinced you have a chance to swim to the other side. But you would not accept such odds if there were no lion.
Christiaan BarnardRead
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You must not talk about 'ain't and can't' when you speak of this great wonderful world round you, of which the wisest man knows only the very smallest corner, and is, as the great Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child picking up pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean.
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What I fear and desire most in this world is passion. I fear it because it promises to be spontaneous, out of my control, unnamed, beyond my reasonable self. I desire it because passion has color, like the landscape before me. It is not pale. It is not neutral. It reveals the backside of the heart.
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To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
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On the day I swore to uphold the Hippocratic oath, the small hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I waited for lightning to strike. Who was I, vowing calmly among all these necktied young men to steal life out of nature's jaws, every old time we got half a chance and a paycheck?... I could not accept the contract: that every child born human upon this earth comes with a guarantee of perfect health and old age clutched in its small fist.
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Before I can embrace freedom, I should be aware of what duties I have.
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Sloth is most often evidenced in busyness ... in frantic running around, trying to be everything to everyone, and then having no time to listen or pray, no time to become the person who is doing these things.
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