“A long life includes all these troubles, just as a long journey includes dust and mud and rain.”
Seneca, c. 64 AD · Roman Stoic philosopher, writing to a friend who was ill and afraid
Chapter 5
On Illness and the Body's Betrayal
“Sickness is an impediment to the body, but not to the will. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will.”
Epictetus, c. 125 AD · Stoic teacher, lame from an injury sustained in slavery
“Pain is slight if opinion has added nothing to it.”
Seneca, c. 64 AD · Roman Stoic philosopher, in a letter on bearing pain
“If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it.”
Marcus Aurelius, c. 170 AD · Roman emperor, often ill during the years he wrote
“He took hold of his hand through the window, and said, It is the appointment of Heaven, alas! That such a man should have such a sickness!”
Confucius, c. 479 BC · visiting his dying student Po-niu, who could not be approached
“God be praised that I am overtaken with misfortune and not with sin.”
Saadi of Shiraz, 1258 · Persian poet, quoting a wounded holy man he met on the seashore
“Let us live happily then, free from ailments among the ailing. Among people who are ailing let us dwell free from ailments.”
The Dhammapada, c. 100 BC · verse 198, from the sayings of the Buddha
“Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.”
Florence Nightingale, 1859 · nurse and statistician, writing from years in military hospitals
“There is scarcely a greater worry which invalids have to endure than the incurable hopes of their friends.”
Florence Nightingale, 1859 · nurse and statistician, in her chapter Chattering Hopes
Asked what matters most at the end of life, patients, families and doctors all named the same things: freedom from pain, peace with God, the presence of family, and being at peace with dying.
Karen Steinhauser and colleagues, 2000 · survey of 1,462 patients, families and care providers, Duke University
Patients with advanced lung cancer who were given palliative care alongside treatment reported better quality of life, less depression, chose less aggressive care, and lived about two months longer.
Jennifer Temel and colleagues, 2010 · randomized trial at Massachusetts General Hospital
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