6 powerful quotes I loved from When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Here are some powerful quotes I loved from When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi:

1. On Mortality and Purpose:
   "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything."
   — This reflects Kalanithi's realization that life continues as normal even in the face of death, but it also gains new meaning.
   

2. On What Makes Life Meaningful:
   "You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving."
   — This speaks to the pursuit of excellence, purpose, and meaning in life, even though perfection is unattainable.
   

3. On Living Fully in the Face of Death:
   "Even if I’m dying, until I actually die, I am still living."
   — A reminder that life should be lived fully, even in the shadow of terminal illness.
   

4. On Identity and Roles:
   "Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. After the diagnosis, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. But now I knew it acutely."
   — This captures the paradox of how knowing one's death is near can make it both distant and immediate.
   

5. On the Importance of Love:
   "The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live."
   — Emphasizing that acknowledging death enriches life by making us more conscious of the love and meaning we find in it.
   

6. On Parenthood and Legacy:
   "Will having a newborn distract from the time we have together? I asked her. Don’t you think saying goodbye to your child will make your death more painful? Wouldn’t it be great if it did?"
   — Kalanithi reflects on the joy and pain of parenthood, even in the face of impending death.

Read my deeper thoughts on this book here!