Patch Adams Quotes

“At the age of 18, I made up my mind to never have another bad day in my life. I dove into a endless sea of gratitude from which I've never emerged.”

“At what point in history did a doctor become something more than a trusted and learned friend who visited and treated the ill?”

“Clowning is a trick to get love close. I can hug 99 percent of people in the first second of contact if I'm in my clown character. The clown assumes your humanity. It assumes that, whatever trauma you've had, you can still love yourself.”

“Death is not the enemy sir, Indifference is! You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you'll win, no matter what the outcome. Is this interesting?”

“Everyone who goes to a job he doesn't like is a lot weirder than I am.”

“Excellence in health means devoting your life to ending poverty.”

“Humor is an antidote to all ills.”

“I entered medicine to use it as a vehicle for social change.”

“I first came to Russia because of the culture, literature and music... and my interest in the 19th-century revolutionary spirit of Herzen, Bakunin and Kropotkin. Russia is a wonderful place to bring new clowns because Russians give back a wonderful response.”

“I make me. At 18, I decided I wasn't going to have an unconstructed self ever. I was going to be the composer, the designer, the architect of me. It's been really fun.”

“I'm a clown, which could be a public health role. I'm really interested in moving our society away from a society needing Xanax and Prozac, and that is really feeling depressed, to one that is celebrating, and so I find just walking around in colorful clothes, people smile.”

“I'm great at a deathbed. I've never given tranquillisers or psychiatric medicine. I've given love and fun and creativity and passion and hope, and these things ease suffering.”

“I'm looking for a world where love will no longer be extraordinary.”

“I've never made a penny being a doctor, so that makes it not a job. My sense of a doctor is that one is a presence caring for health. So I'm never not a doctor. People call me from all over the world who are hurting, and I care for them. Chatting is what more people want than anything.”

“I've taken clowns into the war in Bosnia, the refugee camps of Kosovo, and none of those are any more important than clowning in a subway or an elevator or just walking down the street.”

“If we don't change from a world society that worships money and power to one that worships compassion and generosity, I think we'll be extinct by mid-century. I don't say that as an alarmist or as a pessimist.”

“If you focus on the problem, you can’t see the solution. Never focus on the problem.”

“If you want to change the world, then be your own focus for a celebration of life. Really, fundamentally, at the very core of your being, be thankful you are alive, that you've got this opportunity, with these molecules, at this moment. Be thankful! Be a celebrant! Be thankful that you are alive and then look around to see who else is at the party!”

“Is letting our children watch TV a form of child abuse? If our children grow up knowing everything about Britney Spears and nothing about nature or faith, about anything, is that not a form of child abuse?”

“It is inexcusable that the richest country in the world does not take care of all of its people. We don't consider ourselves idealistic; we're thoughtfully trying to make a beautiful health care model.”

“Mental health is linked to the loss of tribal life, the disconnection from nature and the arts.”

“Remember laughing? Laughter enhances the blood flow to the body’s extremities and improves cardiovascular function. Laughter releases endorphins and other natural mood elevating and pain-killing chemicals, improves the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to internal organs. Laughter boosts the immune system and helps the body fight off disease, cancer cells as well as viral, bacterial and other infections. Being happy is the best cure of all diseases!”

“Robin Williams was a wonderful, kind, and generous man. One important thing I remember about his personality is that he was unassuming – he never acted as if he was powerful or famous.”

“See what no one else sees. See what everyone chooses not to see... out of fear, conformity or laziness. See the whole world anew each day!”

“The medium of response in America is fame; that's how a person that bounces a ball can make millions of dollars, and a school teacher with no fame makes $35,000.”

“The most radical act anyone can commit is to be happy.”

“The purpose of a doctor or any human in general should not be to simply delay the death of the patient, but to increase the person's quality of life.”

“The reason adults should look as though they are having fun, is to give kids a reason to want to grow up.”

“The role of a clown and a physician are the same - it's to elevate the possible and to relieve suffering.”

“Unlike a lot of people, I don't feel powerless. I know I can do something. But anyone can do something, it's not about being special. It's about deciding to do it – to dive into work for peace and justice and care for everybody on the planet.”