Surgeons Quotes

“There is a saying about surgeons, meant as a reproof: "Sometimes wrong; never in doubt." But this seemed to me their strength. Each day surgeons are faced with uncertainties. Information is inadequate; the science is ambiguous; one's knowledge and abilities are never perfect. Even with the simplest operation, it cannot be taken for granted that a patient will come through better off - or even alive. Standing at the table my first time, I wondered how the surgeon knew that he would do this patient good, that all the steps would go as planned, that the bleeding would be controlled and infection would not take hold and organs would not be injured. He didn't, of course. But still he cut.”
― Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

“Surgeons know nothing but do everything. Internists know everything but do nothing. Pathologists know everything and do everything but too late.”
― Robin Cook, Godplayer

“Nostalgia can be more painful than a surgeon's knife.”
― Anurag Shourie, Half A Shadow

“Approaching the forest from the west was no army, but a delegation of Grailsundanian master surgeons on their way to an appendix conference . . . But that isn't the craziest part of the story - oh, no, my boy, for approaching from the east was a party of itinerant watchmakers bound for the pocket-watch fair at Wimbleton . . . But not even that is the craziest part of the story! For apporaching from the south were over a hundred armourers and locksmiths on their way to Florinth, where some power-hungry prince had commissioned them to build a monstrous war machine . . . Well, that would be enough crazy coincedences for an averagely crazy story but the battle of Nurn Forest involved the most improbable coincedences in the history of Zamonia. For entering the forest, this time from the north came a delegation of alchemists.”
― Walter Moers, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures

“We have always preferred to be operated on by the assistants of famous surgeons who are also always famous medical professors, and not by those surgeons and professors themselves.”
― Thomas Bernhard, The Voice Imitator

“Surgeons are so absurdly ultraspecialized that when we joke about right ear surgeons and left ear surgeons, we have to check to be sure they don't exist”
― Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande: 1

“My experiences with surgeons have been wonderful, however my experiences with mental health and chronic fatigue doctors has been extremely poor.”
― Steven Magee

“I have great respect for surgeons, but for mental health professionals...not so much.”
― Steven Magee

“The most important talent may be the talent for practice itself.”
― Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science