The Art of Dying Quotes

“Men often talked about a woman's intuition. Ostensibly it sounded complimentary and yet its intention was usually patronising and dismissive: a term for irrational flights of fancy that these silly creatures would occasionally dream up from nowhere. Sarah understood the true nature of what they were describing. It was not irrational, and nor was it a mystical sixth sense resultant of a unique feminine sensitivity. It was a simple, practical consequence of observation. When you put them in a room, women paid attention to the subtle signs people were sending, while the men concerned themselves only with the impression they were making.”
― Ambrose Parry, The Art of Dying

“Louis XIV of France said that only the small man desires always to be right. It struck Raven that the route to discovery and knowledge lay not in the desire to be right, but in one's preparedness to be wrong. Perhaps seeking proof that tested one's contention was as important as garnering proof to support it.”
― Ambrose Parry, The Art of Dying

“Raven wondered how many enduring misapprehensions in medicine (and other fields, for that matter) were down to ambition and the desire to be vindicated. How many proud men had only sought out the evidence in support of their own hypotheses and eschewed that which might inconveniently put their ideas to the test?
The world needed fewer such proud men, or perhaps it merely required more women like Sarah. An increase in the latter would guarantee a reduction in the former.”
― Ambrose Parry, The Art of Dying

“There was a bite in the breeze as Raven climbed from the carriage and hefted his bags down to the pavement. Late autumn in Edinburgh. He permitted himself a wry smile at its chilly embrace, like a welcome home from a relative with a grudge.”
― Ambrose Parry, The Art of Dying