PATCH ADAMS [1998]

Laughter Is Contagious

I wanted to become a doctor so I could serve others. 

And because of that, I've lost everything. 

But I've also gained everything. 

[Hunter Patch Adams]

All of life is a coming home. 

Salesmen, secretaries, coal miners, beekeepers, sword swallowers, all of us. 

All the restless hearts of the world, all trying to find a way home. 

It's hard to describe what I felt like then. 

Picture yourself walking for days in the driving snow; 
you don't even know you're walking in circles. 

The heaviness of your legs in the drifts, your shouts disappearing into the wind. 

How small you can feel, and how far away home can be. 

Home. 

The dictionary defines it as both a place of origin and a goal or destination. 

And the storm? 

The storm was all in my mind. 

Or as the poet Dante put it: 
In the middle of the journey of my life, I found myself in a dark wood, 
for I had lost the right path. 

Eventually I would find the right path, but in the most unlikely place.

[Hunter Patch Adams]

*standing on the edge of a cliff contemplating suicide. He talks to God...* 

So what now, huh? What do you want from me? 

*looks down over cliff, a rock tumbles off* 

Yeah, I could do it. We both know you wouldn't stop me. 

So answer me please. Tell me what you're doing. 

Okay, let's look at the logic. 

You create man. Man suffers enormous amounts of pain. Man dies. 

Maybe you should have had just a few more brainstorming sessions prior to creation. 

You rested on the seventh day. 

Maybe you should've spent that day on compassion. 

*looks down over the cliff again* 

You know what? You're not worth it. 

*walks away from the cliff*

[Hunter Patch Adams] 

We need to start treating the patient as well as the disease. 

[Hunter Patch Adams]

Now you have the ability to keep me from graduating. 

You can keep me from getting the title and the white coat. 

But you can't control my spirit, gentlemen. 

You can't keep me from learning, you can't keep me from studying. 

So you have a choice: you can have me as a professional colleague, passionate, 
or you can have me as an outspoken outsider, still adament. 

Either way I'll probably still be viewed as a thorn. 

But I promise you one thing: I am a thorn that will not go away 

[Hunter Patch Adams]

When I was a girl I would look out my bedroom window at the caterpillars; 
I envied them so much. 

No matter what they were before, no matter what happened to them, 
they could just hide away and turn into these beautiful creatures that could fly away completely untouched. 

[Corinne Fisher]

You're focusing on the problem. 

If you focus on the problem, you can't see the solution. 

Never focus on the problem! 

[Arthur Mendelson]

See what no one else sees. 

See what everyone chooses not to see... out of fear, conformity or laziness. 

See the whole world a new each day! 

[Arthur Mendelson]

Our job is to rigorously and ruthlessly train the humanity out of you and make you into something better. 

We're gonna make doctors out of you. 

[Dean Walcott]

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