Alan Bennett Quotes

Good physicians are rarely dispassionate. They agonize and self-doubt over patients.

Today, the practice of medicine in an urban, technological society rarely provides either the time or the environment to encourage a doctor-patient relationship that promotes healing.

As a clinician, I would never want to be coercive in relation to a patient, nor do I harbor the illusion that as a physician I am capable of forcing someone to change their behavior, no matter how detrimental to their health.

As my mentor in Medical School, Dr William Strong taught me: Never wear a white coat; it separates you from a fellow human being. I never have from that day on. You are your patients guide, counselor, and defender, not their ruler and dictator.

There is only one cardinal rule: One must always listen to the patient.

Doctors put a wall up between themselves and their patients; nurses broke it down.

The surgical nurses were right. Theo Buchanan was gorgeous.. and sexy as hell. But none of that should matter. She was his physician, nothing more, noting less.. His hair was sticking up and he needed a shave, but he was still sexy. There wasn't anything wrong with her noticing that.. unless, of course, he noticed her noticing.

I said God, I want to spend the rest of my life helping people, and felt a real call through a divine moment, an encounter with God. I went to my pastor and said I have a call of God to preach. He put a broom in my hand, and I began to sweep the church.

The Physitian owes all to the patient, but the patient owes nothing to him but a little mony.

A poor leader will tell you how many people work for them. A great leader will tell you how many people they work for.

Jesus measured greatness in terms of service not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you.

I've found that South Africa has produced good leaders. These are people who realize that when there is danger, they should be in the forefront and when there is victory to be celebrated, they should be in the background, allowing their colleagues and the ordinary civilians - the man in the street - to rejoice and to celebrate that victory.

The measure of a leader is not the number of people who serve him, but the number of people he serves.

The world doesn't need more great leaders, it needs more great people who lead.

Bren MacGuff: Well, honey, doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people scream.

It is no part of a physician's business to use either persuasion or compulsion upon the patients.

Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others.

Almost every single person that I've worked with - whether it's been George Clooney or Robert DeNiro or Harvey Keitel, or whoever - the quality that I find that's most consistent in most of the people is the humility.

I am a Doctor, but above all else I consider myself an activist for peace, justice and care for all people.

I am convinced that any feeling of exaltation because we have people under us should be conquered, for I am sure that if we enjoy being over people, there will be something in our manner which will make them dislike being under us.

Care more for the individual patient than for the special features of the disease. . . . Put yourself in his place . . . The kindly word, the cheerful greeting, the sympathetic look - these the patient understands.

I would like to maximize the level of human choice in the medical field...The choice of a treatment in many ways is like the exercise of religion.

When the sage stands above people, they are not oppressed. When he leads people, they are not obstructed. The world will exalt him and not grow tired of him.

The depersonalizati on of diagnosis and therapy has changed malpractice from an ethical into a technical problem.

I used to wonder why people should be so fond of the company of their physician, till I recollected that he is the only person with whom one dares to talk continually of oneself, without interruption, contradiction or censure; I suppose that delightful immunity doubles their fees.