# Quote — Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

> I have excised the cancer from my past, cut it out; I have crossed the high plains, descended into the desert, traversed oceans, and planted my feet in new soil; I have been the apprentice, paid my dues, and have become master of my ship. But when I look down, why do I see the ancient, tarred, mud-stained slippers that I buried at the start of the journey still stuck to my feet?

- Author: [Abraham Verghese](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese.md)
- Book: [Cutting for Stone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese/cutting-for-stone.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Verghese#Cutting_for_Stone_(2009)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese/cutting-for-stone/i-have-excised

## More from this book

> Encouraged by the old surgical saw "Any idiot can amputate a led," Ghosh had decided to proceed. If he hesitated, it was because the rest of the saying went "but it takes a skilled surgeon to save one."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese/cutting-for-stone/encouraged-by-the.md)

> Ghosh trusted me to do whatever it is I would choose to do. That, too, is love. He'd been dead more than a quarter century and he was still teaching me about the trust that comes only from true love.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese/cutting-for-stone/ghosh-trusted-me.md)

> But you reach a point where after trying and trying you say, Patience be damned. Let them suffer their distorted worldview. Your job is to preserve yourself, not to descend into their hole. It's a relief when you arrive at this place, the point of absurdity, because then you are free, you know you owe them nothing.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese/cutting-for-stone/but-you-reach.md)