Civil and political rights are critical, but not often the real problem for the destitute sick. My patients in Haiti can now vote but they can't get medical care or clean water. — Paul Farmer Copy Share Image
I think, sometimes, that I'm going nuts, and that perhaps there is something good about blocking clean water for those who have none, making sure that illiterate children remain so, and preventing the resuscitation of the public health sector in… — Paul Farmer Copy Share Image
If you look at people who seek a lot of care in American cities for multiple illnesses, it's usually people with a number of… — Paul Farmer Copy Share
It is very expensive to give bad medical care to poor people in a rich country. — Paul Farmer Copy Share
The idea that because you're born in Haiti you could die having a child. The idea that because you're born in you know Malawi… — Paul Farmer Copy Share
I critique market-based medicine not because I haven't seen its heights but because I've seen its depths. — Paul Farmer Copy Share
With rare exceptions, all of your most important achievements on this planet will come from working with others- or, in a word, partnership. — Paul Farmer Copy Share
The poorest parts of the world are by and large the places in which one can best view the worst of medicine and not… — Paul Farmer Copy Share
One of the things we have to acknowledge is that if you look at Haiti, many billions of dollars have gone into development aid… — Paul Farmer Copy Share
But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when… — Paul Farmer Copy Share
What I can argue is that no one should have to die of a disease that is treatable. — Paul Farmer Copy Share
I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory. — Paul Farmer Copy Share
I think we will see better vaccines within the next 15 years, but I'm not a scientist and am focused on the short-term -… — Paul Farmer Copy Share