Vivek Murthy Quotes

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Vivek Murthy

Profession : Public Servant

Birth : July 10, 1977

When I look at the patients that I've cared for with mental illness, I know that many of them took years to come forward and tell somebody that they were in pain and that they needed help.

Vivek Murthy

Sometimes when you get sick and you go to the doctor, it can feel like you didn't get your money's worth if you don't come away with a pill. I've had many, many conversations with patients who I've cared for over the years about why it's actually in some cases better not to go home with antibiotics.

Vivek Murthy

My mother was from a middle-class background.

Vivek Murthy

Arranged marriages are ones where you got to learn who the person is after you actually get married, which can be challenging.

Vivek Murthy

Despite growing up in very poor circumstances, my father had big dreams.

Vivek Murthy

I have experienced loneliness at many, many points in my life and felt this profound sense of shame about it - all the years when I was a child that I struggled with feeling lonely when I was scared to go to school and petrified of walking into the elementary school cafeteria because I was worried I wouldn't have anyone to sit with.

Vivek Murthy

We don't do enough to help older people recognize how much they matter.

Vivek Murthy

If you've ever had the experience of being in conversation with someone when they were fully present, listening deeply to you when you're sharing with them, you know that five minutes of a fully present conversation like that can be more powerful than 30 minutes of distracted conversation.

Vivek Murthy

While there are relatively few extreme introverts or extroverts, most of us lean in one direction or the other. If we lean more toward introversion, we'll generally prefer less social activity than more extroverted people. One inclination is not 'better' than another, but our culture can make it seem as if extroverts have a social advantage.

Vivek Murthy

There's a tremendous sense of shame that people who are lonely feel. I say that as someone who felt ashamed of being lonely as a child and even at points during adulthood.

Vivek Murthy

If we approach other people understanding our own value, being confident in who we are, being centered and grounded, it's actually easier for us to connect with them because we can listen more deeply and we can express ourselves more authentically without fear of being judged or not being enough.

Vivek Murthy

When I began my tenure as surgeon general, I did not intend to focus on emotional well-being.

Vivek Murthy

I think of emotional well-being as a resource within each of us that allows us to do more and to perform better. That doesn't mean just the absence of mental illness. It's the presence of positive emotions that allows us to be resilient in the face of adversity.

Vivek Murthy

Emotions are a source of power, and that's what science tells us. But many people I encounter have been led to think of emotions as a source of weakness.

Vivek Murthy

Most parents vaccinate their kids. That is the bottom line.

Vivek Murthy

It is true that there are some parents who have concerns about vaccines, but while we hear about these concerns a lot in the media, I don't want people to think that the majority of parents out there do not believe in vaccines and then most kids aren't getting vaccinated. In fact, it's exactly the opposite.

Vivek Murthy

Well, the responsibility of the surgeon general is to make sure that the public has access to science and access to it in a way that is understandable and that is applicable to their everyday lives.

Vivek Murthy

My journey to working on loneliness was certainly not an expected one or planned one.

Vivek Murthy

When I went through my confirmation hearing to serve as surgeon general they asked me what my priorities would be and I didn't list loneliness in that priority list because it was not one at the time.

Vivek Murthy

We will not solve the addiction problem in America if we don't address social connection.

Vivek Murthy