I don't want an ambulance. I want you to sit down and shut up." "But Signore, an ambulance could take you to a hospital. They could help you." "I don't want to die in a hospital." "You wouldn't! You'd live!" Alessandro closed one eye. "I don't want to be alive in a hospital, either.
by Mark Helprin
(0 Reviews)

The dialogue reflects a profound reluctance towards traditional medical intervention, highlighting the character Alessandro's fear of dying in a clinical environment. He expresses a preference for dignity and autonomy over the sterile and impersonal nature of hospitals. His statement uncovers a deeper philosophical view on life and death, showing a desire for control over his circumstances, even in the face of serious injury. The insistence on not wanting an ambulance underlines a rejection of societal norms regarding health care and survival.

This interaction showcases a poignant moment of vulnerability where Alessandro grapples with the ideas of existence and suffering. He chooses to confront his mortality on his own terms, suggesting that for him, the quality of life is paramount, even more so than the act of living itself. His emotionally charged words reflect a common human fear of losing agency in one’s final moments, emphasizing the need for personal choice at life’s end and the struggle against being treated merely as a patient.

Stats

Categories
Author
Votes
0
Page views
5
Update
April 18, 2025

Rate the Quote

Add Comment & Review

User Reviews

Based on 0 reviews
5 Star
0
4 Star
0
3 Star
0
2 Star
0
1 Star
0
Add Comment & Review
We'll never share your email with anyone else.
More »

Other quotes in A Soldier of the Great War

More »

Popular quotes

Taffy. He thinks about taffy. He thinks it would take his teeth out now, but he would eat it anyhow, if it meant eating it with her.
by Mitch Albom
All our human endeavours are like that, she reflected, and it is only because we are too ignorant to realize it, or are too forgetful to remember it, that we have the confidence to build something that is meant to last.
by Alexander McCall Smith
In fact, none of us knows how he ever managed to get his LLB in the first place. Maybe they're putting law degrees in cornflakes boxes these days.
by Alexander McCall Smith
The value of money is subjective, depending on age. At the age of one, one multiplies the actual sum by 145,000, making one pound seem like 145,000 pounds to a one-year-old. At seven – Bertie's age – the multiplier is 24, so that five pounds seems like 120 pounds. At the age of twenty four, five pounds is five pounds; at forty five it is divided by 5, so that it seems like one pound and one pound seems like twenty pence. {All figures courtesy of Scottish Government Advice Leaflet: Handling your Money.}
by Alexander McCall Smith
Look, if you say that science will eventually prove there is no God, on that I must differ. No matter how small they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they can't explain, something that created it all at the end of the search. And no matter how far they try to go the other way – to extend life, play around with the genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty – at some point, life is over. And then what happens? When the life comes to an end? I shrugged. You see? He leaned back. He smiled. When you come to the end, that's where God begins.
by Mitch Albom
Small towns are like metronomes; with the slightest flick, the beat changes.
by Mitch Albom
You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole.
by Mitch Albom
we get so many lives between birth and death. A life to be a child. A life to come of age. A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality-and, in some lucky cases, to do something after that realization.
by Mitch Albom
Where there's bluster, thinks Luisa, there's duplicity
by David Mitchell
But an ink brush, she thinks, is a skeleton key for a prisoner's mind.
by David Mitchell