Home > Author > Sherwin B. Nuland
81 " It is incumbent on each of us to cultivate his or her own wisdom. So gradual a progression is the onset of our aging that we one day find it to be fully upon us. In its own unhurried way, age soundlessly and with persistence treads ever closer behind us on slippered feet, catches up, and finally blends itself into us—all while we are still denying its nearness. It enters at last into the depths of one’s being, not only to occupy them but to become their very essence. In time, we not only acknowledge aging’s presence within us, but come to know it as well as we knew—and still covet—the exuberant youth that once dwelt there. And then, finally, we try to reconcile ourselves to the inescapable certainty that we are now included among the elderly. "
― Sherwin B. Nuland , The Art of Aging: A Doctor's Prescription for Well-Being
82 " ...my patient needed a great deal of reassurance that there had been nothing unusual about the way her mother died, that she had not done something wrong to prevent her mother from experiencing that "spiritual" death with dignity that she had anticipated. All of her efforts and expectations had been in vain, and now this very intelligent woman was in despair. I tried to make clear to her that the belief in the probability of death with dignity is our, and society's, attempt to deal with the reality of what is all too frequently a series of destructive events that involve by their very nature the disintegration of the dying person's humanity. I have not often seen much dignity in the process by which we die. "
― Sherwin B. Nuland
83 " The greatest dignity to be found in death is the dignity of the life that preceded it. This is a form of hope we all can achieve… the hope that resides in the meaning of what our lives have been. "
84 " reasons that one generation must give way to the next, as made clear in another of the letters Jefferson wrote to the equally venerable John Adams near the end of his life: “There is a ripeness of time for death, regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is reasonable we should drop off, and make room for another growth. When we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another. "
― Sherwin B. Nuland , How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter
85 " Poets, essayists, chroniclers, wags, and wise men write often about death ut have rarely seen it. Physicians and nurses, who see it often, rarely write about it. "
86 " The difference between CVA as a terminal event and CVA as a cause of death is the difference between a worldview that recognizes the inexorable tide of natural history and a worldview that believes it is within the province of science to wrestle against those forces that stabilize our environment and our very civilization. "
87 " But the fact is, death is not a confrontation. It is simply an event in the sequence of nature’s ongoing rhythms. Not death but disease is the real enemy, disease the malign force that requires confrontation. Death is the surcease that comes when the exhausting battle has been lost. Even the confrontation with disease should be approached with the realization that many of the sicknesses of our species are simply conveyances for the inexorable journey by which each of us is returned to the same state of physical, and perhaps spiritual, nonexistence from which we emerged at conception. Every triumph over some major pathology, no matter how ringing the victory, is only a reprieve from the inevitable end. "
88 " Cancer cells are fixed at an age where they are still too young to have learned the rules of the society in which they live. As with so many immature individuals of all living kinds, everything they do is excessive and uncoordinated with the needs or constraints of their neighbors… they are reproductive but not productive. "
89 " Though wisdom involves the search for ultimate truth, it must be pursued with the realization that ultimately there is no absolute truth, only perception. Ambiguity, contradiction, uncertainty, even error: To be comfortable with them is the beginning of wisdom. To function and make good decisions in the face of uncertainty, unpredictability, and necessarily limited information is to acknowledge that these are intrinsic to the human condition, the conditions of our lives. To deal with them requires flexibility, and this too is a component of wisdom. To step back, constantly reevaluate, modify judgments, and be willing to admit inaccuracy and error—these test wisdom’s resolve. "
90 " To the wise advice that we live every day as though it will be our last, we do well to add the admonition to live every day as though we will be on this earth forever. "