I could show you these men and women, all the world over, in every stage of history, under every abuse of error, under every circumstance of failure, without hope, without help, without thanks, still obscurely fighting the lost fight of virtue, still clinging, in the brothel or on the scaffold, to some rag of honour, the poor jewel of their souls! They may seek to escape, and yet they cannot; it is not alone their privilege and glory, but their doom; they are condemned to some nobility; all their lives long, the desire of good is at their heels, the implacable hunter.
-R.L.Stevenson
Some days I think "fighting the lost fight of virtue" describes everything a doctor does. For, though my profession struggles to ease pain, to improve lives in quality and extend them in quantity, and though those aims sometimes are more obviously conflicting than complimentary, the desire of good is at our heels, and in the end, the fight is lost.
But it is still worth fighting.
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1 comment:
And yet the battle is already won for some, "Where O grave is thy victory, where death is thy sting?"
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