Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

by Atul Gawande

Death, of course, is not a failure. Death is normal. Death may be the enemy, but it is also the natural order of things.

The lesson seems almost Zen: you live longer only when you stop trying to live longer.

ODTAA syndrome: the syndrome of One Damn Thing After Another.

Courage is strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped. Wisdom is prudent strength.