Christiaan Barnard

“It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.”

“For a dying man, it is not a difficult decision because he knows he is at the end. If a lion chases you to a river filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water, convinced you have a chance to swim to the other side.”

“I have one great fear in my life - that I will be forgotten.”

“The prime goal is to alleviate suffering, and not to prolong life. And if your treatment does not alleviate suffering, but only prolongs life, that treatment should be stopped.”

“The man who has never been tempted is a fool.”

“The heart is just a pump. A pump can be replaced.”

“A surgeon must be a man of courage.”

“I had to learn to live with my arthritis. I'm not a brave man, but I'm a disciplined man.”

“Suffering is not holding you. You are holding suffering.”

“The operation wasn't that difficult. The difficult part was the decision to start.”

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

“It is a far, far better thing to have a life of compassion that has failed than to have a life of selfishness that has succeeded.”

“Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.”

“Retirement is a death, a symbolic death, and it's a very bad thing.”