"Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one's own genes in the generations to follow."

"Medical knowledge and technical savvy are biodegradable. The sort of medicine that was practiced in Boston or New York or Atlanta fifty years ago would be as strange to a medical student or intern today as the ceremonial dance of a !Kung San tribe would seem to a rock festival audience in Hackensack."

"Doctors, dressed up in one professional costume or another, have been in busy practice since the earliest records of every culture on earth. It is hard to think of a more dependable or enduring occupation, harder still to imagine any future events leading to its extinction."

"Very few recognize science as the high adventure it really is, the wildest of all explorations ever taken by human beings, the chance to glimpse things never seen before, the shrewdest maneuver for discovering how the world works."

"Wisdom principle 95 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 29."

"Wisdom principle added 42 tells us that life is lesson 42."

"Wisdom is the quiet art of recognizing what can be changed and releasing what cannot. Let this simple maxim guide your daily deeds — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Wisdom principle 58 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 94."