Henry Marsh Quotes

#1. The idea that my sucker is moving through thought itself, through emotion and reason, that memories, dreams and reflections should consist of jelly, is simply too strange to understand.

Henry Marsh

#2. Angor animi - the sense of being in the act of dying, differing from the fear of death or the desire for death.

Henry Marsh

#3. Life without hope is hopelessly difficult but at the end hope can so easily make fools of us all.

Henry Marsh

#4. But I then thought of how the value of my work as a doctor is measured solely in the value of other people's lives, and that included the people in front of me in the check-out queue.

Henry Marsh

#5. When push comes to shove we can afford to lose an arm or a leg, but I am operating on peoples thoughts and feelings... and if something goes wrong I can destroy that persons character... forever.

Henry Marsh

#6. Hope is beyond price and the pharmaceutical companies, which are run by businessmen not altruists, price their products accordingly.

Henry Marsh

#7. My readiness to admit to my fallibility is perhaps rather English, but I hope that the problems I describe will be familiar to doctors and patients everywhere.

Henry Marsh

#8. CSF used to be called "gin-clear" when there was no blood or infection in it,' I say to Jeff. 'But probably we're now supposed to use alcohol-free terminology.' I

Henry Marsh

#9. When I tell a patient that I think I should do their operation under local anaesthetic they usually look a little shocked. In fact the brain cannot itself feel pain since pain is a phenomenon produced within the brain.

Henry Marsh

#10. How are you feeling?' I asked. 'Fine,' he replied with a tired smile. 'Well done!' I replied, as I think patients need to be congratulated for their surviving just as much as the surgeons should be congratulated for doing their job well. 'It's

Henry Marsh

#11. Anxiety might be contagious, but confidence is also contagious

Henry Marsh

#12. The operating is the easy part, you know,' he said. 'By my age you realize that the difficulties are all to do with the decision-making.

Henry Marsh

#13. Some of my operations are great triumphs and tremendous. But they're only triumphs because there are also disasters

Henry Marsh

#14. Next morning I showed her brain scan to the juniors at

Henry Marsh

#15. But death is not always a bad outcome, you know, and a quick death can be better than a slow one.

Henry Marsh