Patch Adams quotes

Patch Adams is an American physician, comedian, and social activist known for promoting alternative approaches to medicine based on humor and compassion. His work led to the founding of the Gesundheit! Institute, dedicated to holistic healthcare. He advocates for treating patients with kindness and laughter. Here are 23 of his quotes:

I think my government are fascists. I feel that if we don't change from a society that worships money and power over to one that worships compassion and generosity, there is no hope for human survival this century. (Patch Adams)
I'll give you an example - in Russia most of the hospitals don't have any pain medicine, they don't have any money. So if you're with kids with cancer, they can have metastases to the bone; which some say is the worst pain a human can experience. So a mother can be in a room with a child who hasn't stopped screaming in five months. ...85% of the time I walk in there as a clown they'll stop screaming. View quote
Patch Adams
Humor is an antidote to all ills. View quote
Patch Adams
Welcome to my library! Ever since my high school days, books and magazines have been to my mind what friends are in the flesh. Each and every one of these books and articles-- a fraction of the 12,000 volumes that I share my house with-- has contributed to expanding my dream. View quote
Patch Adams
Take a close look at the part that "love" plays in your life. Make an inventory of love: people, things, ideas, experiences. Try to live your gratitude. View quote
Patch Adams
I have often found that mental patients who are given love, creativity, and community find the peace that they are reaching out for. View quote
Patch Adams
Imagination is an infinite resource that cannot be diminished by overuse or underuse. View quote
Patch Adams
The medical professionals are a lot more comfortable calling it "depression" than calling it "loneliness." View quote
Patch Adams
I think that the loss of the house call has been the biggest blow to the art of medicine in this century. Not only has the patient lost this precious attention, but the physician has not found a replacement for the lost intimacy. View quote
Patch Adams
The role of a clown and a physician are the same - it's to elevate the possible and to relieve suffering. View quote
Patch Adams
You've got to know what you want. This is central to acting on your intentions. When you know what you want, you realize that all there is left then is time management. You'll manage your time to achieve your goals because you clearly know what you're trying to achieve in your life. (Patch Adams)
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. View quote
Patch Adams
People hunger for love, and clowning is a trick to get love close. View quote
Patch Adams
I want to be an agent of change to a loving world - so I will be radiant. View quote
Patch Adams
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. View quote
Patch Adams
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. View quote
Patch Adams
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. View quote
Patch Adams
When you left the house today, you had the intention of putting clothes on and you did. You didn't try to put your pants on today. You simply put them on. The same has to hold for all of our intentions. We don't try to be more loving partners. We make the intention, and we act on it. View quote
Patch Adams
What I really want is a world where no one alive can remember what the word 'war' means. That's my goal. View quote
Patch Adams
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. View quote
Patch Adams
You know, it's always the same. I've clowned in 81 countries. People hunger for love, and clowning is a trick to get love close. As a clown I can do things that people are too frightened of Love to allow you to do. (Patch Adams)
If I plant the idea that you really are a responsible person, that your life and life around you is affected by you, even though you're only one person, life can become very exciting. View quote
Patch Adams
I dove into the ocean of gratitude and never found the shore. View quote
Patch Adams