Top 35 Bernie Siegel Quotes

I was called a ‘CD’ by a suicidal teenager, who is alive today because I became her ‘Chosen Dad,’ who loved her. We all have the potential to re-parent ourselves and others.

Parents, teachers, clergy and physicians change lives with their words. It is hypnotic for a child or patient to hear an authority figure‘s words. As I am always sharing, ‘wordswordswords’ can become ‘swordswordswords,’ and we can kill or cure with either words or swords.

If I were rewriting ‘Love, Medicine & Miracles,’ I might consider changing its title to ‘The Side Effects of Cancer.’ Healing is hard work, as is any change one must make in one’s life. I and others have learned, however, that the side effects of cancer may not all be bad ones.

Patients want to be seen as people. For me, the person‘s life comes first; the disease is simply one aspect of it, which I can guide my patients to use as a redirection in their lives. When doctors look at their patients, however, they are trained to see only the disease.

I believe the reason we sleep is not just to allow our body to rest but that it is to allow this inner wisdom to speak to us through symbols. This includes the body or somatic problems as well as psychological ones. Dreams and drawings are useful in diagnosing physical conditions.

If you talk to your body, it will listen.

Traditional doctors say I’m a mystic. I don’t deny it.

We participate and are responsible for a lot of the things that happen to us. If you hate your job, you are much more likely to get sick and die at a younger age than someone who’s happy at work and has a nice family life and is mentally well adjusted.

Inspiration is the greatest gift because it opens your life to many new possibilities. Each day becomes more meaningful, and your life is enhanced when your actions are guided by what inspires you.

Life is a miracle, and we need to not fear trying to achieve our potential and reveal the remarkable creation we and all living things are and that our Creator has built into us the ability to induce self-healing.

Part of my evolution has been to learn how painful most people’s childhoods are. They grow up not liking themselves, not loving themselves. Ask people if they were lovable the minute they were born, and watch them sit back and have to think about it. One lady said, ‘I suppose so.’ That’s painful.

I truly feel the best doctors are ones who are criticized by nurses, patients and family. They do not make excuses and learn from their mistakes.

If you think about evolution, sleep, at some time, was a dangerous undertaking. You lie down in your cave or shelter, and along comes a predator and has you for dinner. Many creatures do not sleep or sleep while standing so they can escape from dangerous situations.

The doctor I would want for myself or for anyone else I cared about would be one who understands that disease is more than just a clinical entity; it is an experience and a metaphor, with a message that must be listened to.

One of the best ways to change is to act as if you are the person you want to become. When you behave as if you are a different person, you change on a very basic level – even your physiology changes. When actors and actresses perform, their body chemistry is altered by the roles they play.

When my body gets to the point where I can no longer function or feel gratitude, then I’ll leave it and become grateful again. But until then, I will appreciate what I have and not whine about what I don’t have. I will feel blessed by life and the opportunity to help others see that they are blessed, too.

The mind and body are not separate units, but one integrated system. How we act and what we think, eat, and feel are all related to our health. Physicians should be capable of teaching this behavior to patients.

What I try to get physically healthy people to understand is that they’re going to die someday. There is no way out. And dying isn’t failure, but not living is, so make use of your time. Don’t keeping waiting.

When your heart speaks to you about what you need to do to sustain life on this planet, listen to it, make a difference, and be an inspiration for generations to come. Be inspired by people like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Christopher Reeve, Albert Schweitzer, Helen Keller, and many others.

There is survival behavior, and doctors need to learn from patients who do not die when they are supposed to, instead of saying, ‘You’re doing very well, so keep doing whatever you are doing.’ They should be asking what their patient is doing and pass the information to other patients.

An awareness of one’s mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life.

I wish medical schools helped us to analyze our healthy and unhealthy reasons for becoming doctors.

Physicians need to be good technicians and know how to prescribe, but for healing to occur they also need to incorporate philosophy and spirituality into their treatment. We need to feel as well as think.

If we had no hope – for a cure, for winning the lottery, for falling in love, for the end of war, for being free of abuse, or for having food, warmth, clothing, and shelter – we would have no reason to go on. What you hope for doesn’t matter, but rather the essence of hope itself.

God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease.

Give someone who has faith in you a placebo and call it a hair growing pill, anti-nausea pill or whatever, and you will be amazed at how many respond to your therapy.

There have been many dreams which have been personal guides for me.

The spiritual message is we lose our lives in pleasing others; if you’re the good child who pleases Mommy and Daddy but internalizes anger, you’re setting yourself up for disease.

I have always made a distinction between healing and curing. To me, ‘healed‘ represents a condition of one’s life; ‘cured‘ relates strictly to one’s physical condition. In other words, there may be healed quadriplegics and AIDS patients, and cured cancer patients who are leading unhealthy lives.

I decided to become a surgeon named Bernie who writes books and gives seminars to teach people what he has learned and is still learning about how to deal with life’s difficulties.

As doctors, we are not trained to communicate and understand the power of our words as they relate to a patient’s ability and desire to survive.

I see people who die a few minutes after a doctor tells them there is no hope of a cure. They give up and go. Others get angry and find joy in proving the doctor wrong. Something within them is challenged and hopeful. Hope is the divine motivator.

Love and peace of mind do protect us. They allow us to overcome the problems that life hands us. They teach us to survive… to live now… to have the courage to confront each day.

You can’t control the world, but when you control your thoughts, you bring order.

I think some people do want to die, and they will get a disease. There are people who know their lives are so troubled, and their bodies are getting them out of here.