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Gratitude
Oliver Sacks
4.17
23,912 ratings2,573 reviews
“My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”
—Oliver Sacks
No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks.
During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death.
“It is the fate of every human being,” Sacks writes, “to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.”
Together, these four essays form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life.
GenresNonfictionMemoirEssaysBiographyPsychologyPhilosophyAudiobook
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49 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2015
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Oliver Sacks100 books9,672 followers
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Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.
After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.
Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.
His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".
Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.
Since 1996, Sacks was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
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Petra X
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December 3, 2015
This is a very short book. I had read two of the essays before, this time I got the audio book and listened to them. Sometimes it is a different experience. Just four essays written by Oliver Sacks before he died. All the links are to the essays as they were originally published.
The first essay, Mercury or the Joy of Old Age is a brief meditation on what it will mean to him to be very old, 80.
The second essay, My Own Life on learning the cancer from his eye has metastised and is now terminal. It's quite moving.
The third essay, My Periodic Table relates his life, and the treatment for his cancer to the elements.
The fourth essay, though, the last one, is the one that stands out for me. In part because I come from a similar background, in part because my flat in London is quite literally around the corner from Sacks' family home, although by the time I arrived there, it was only a Jewish area in a very small way. It was now an eclectic mix of young professionals, Londoners, Jamaicans and Irish. Still there was a very good bagel shop...
It is also my favourite because of a quote I have loved for a very long time, it's by Chaim Potok, from his novel The Chosen. The quote is peculiarly apposite as Sacks' cancer started in his eye.
"Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much, if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?
I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing; but the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing; but the man who lives the span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.
It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning- that, I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here."
The essay Sabbath is a perfect elucidation of that quote by a man who gave life meaning to many despairing people and after a long life well-lived, deserved his eternal rest.
Alev HaShalom, rest in peace, Oliver.
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Rowan MacDonald
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October 11, 2025
Oliver Sacks wrote a series of essays during his last two years. Gratitude contains four of these – exploring feelings about life, coming to terms with his imminent passing and the gratitude he felt.
Mercury
Sacks wrote this in the days before turning eighty. He touches on regrets and admits to thinking he was going to die much younger after a mountaineering fall. It was interesting to read about him developing a lived sense of history.
“I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was forty or sixty.”
My Own Life
He wrote this after learning he had six months to live. It was first published in The New York Times. The essay was inspired by one of his favourite philosophers, David Hume, who write a short autobiography in a single day upon learning he was terminally ill.
“I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work, and my friends.”
Sacks expressed an overwhelming appreciation for a life-well lived. It puts things in perspective – especially reading how he stopped watching the news, paying attention to politics and arguments about global warming – acknowledging such things belong to the future, one that he won’t partake in. It made me realise how privileged we are to have such worries and concerns, to have a future for oneself at all.
My Periodic Table
This was a reflection on his lifelong passion for the periodic table of elements. He expertly combined this with reflections on his own mortality, talking about scientific advancements and breakthroughs he won’t be alive to see.
It was interesting to learn how he previously coped with loss by turning to numbers, elements etc. The most poignant highlight was perhaps a passage about seeing a night sky full of stars.
“It was this celestial splendor that suddenly made me realize how little time, how little life, I had left.”
Sabbath
Oliver Sacks devoted his last energies to writing. This piece was published two weeks before his death in August, 2015. He explored religion and sexuality, how the two collided during his life. I was pleased to learn he ultimately found peace within himself.
He talks about the seventh day of the week, where someone can feel their work is done and one may finally rest. It was a beautiful end to this short book.
Gratitude will no doubt prompt readers to reflect on their own lives – things they have done, things they want to do, and the people and places they love. We have much to be grateful for.
I look forward to rewatching Awakenings and reading more work from Oliver Sacks.
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Valeriu Gherghel
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August 2, 2025
O carte de înțelepciune, n-ar fi rău s-o citiți...
De obicei, nu ne preocupă cine știe ce nici viața, nici moartea. Amîndouă sînt cuvinte goale. Viața e ceva de la sine înțeles, nimeni nu pune întrebări cu privire la ea, trăim fiindcă trăim (iată o tautologie!), punct. Moartea se întîmplă întotdeauna doar celorlalți, pe noi ne va ocoli neîndoios încă o mie de ani. Cu acest rudiment de filosofie oarbă, nu știm să ne bucurăm de viață (nici nu vrem) și nici nu sîntem dispuși să acceptăm că nu vom trăi veșnic. Nu privim în jur, nu mirosim aroma unui trandafir, nu iubim, nu scrutăm noaptea lumina ipotetică a constelațiilor. Există pretutindeni o frumusețe pe care nu o merităm. Și pe care, de prea multe ori, o neglijăm și o disprețuim.
Cartea cuprinde patru articole redactate de Sacks în preajma sfîrșitului (între 2013-2015): „[Scriu] acum, cînd moartea nu mai e doar un concept abstact - ci o prezență foarte intimă și imposibil de ignorat...”. Într-un fel, maladia l-a luat pe nepregătite. Sacks crede că a fost mai bine așa. În decembrie 2014, a putut să-și termine în pace cartea de memorii On the Move: A Life.
Multă vreme am crezut că expresiile „Viața e frumoasă” și „Mă bucur că trăiesc” sînt propoziții lipsite de sens. Rudolf Carnap le-ar fi trecut în rîndul propozițiilor metafizice. Acum nu mai cred asta. Ieri dimineață am primit un mic avertisment. Nu știu dacă e bine că m-am născut, a fost un hazard, n-a depins de mine. Dar dacă tot sînt în viață (cît voi mai fi), bine-aș face dacă aș folosi cu oarece chibzuință mult-puținul care mi-a mai rămas de trăit. Oliver Sacks a avut dreptate:
„Acum, la aproape 80 de ani, împresurat de boală și trecut prin atîtea operații, nu însă și infirm, mă bucur că sînt în viață - «Sînt fericit că n-am murit!», mă surprind strigînd cîteodată, cînd e vremea frumoasă. Spre deosebire de Samuel Beckett, căruia un prieten îmi povestea că i-ar fi spus într-o dimineață superbă de primăvară, cînd se plimbau prin Paris: «Într-o zi ca asta nu poți să nu te bucuri că trăiești, nu-i așa?» La care Beckett i-a răspuns: «N-aș merge pînă-ntr-acolo!»”. Exclamația lui Samuel Beckett e amuzantă, cinică și atît.
De ce trebuie să fim recunoscători că ne-am născut? Sugestia lui Richard Dawkins nu mă convinge. Trebuie să fim bucuroși că trăim, spune savantul, fiindcă dintr-un set infinit de vieți foarte puțin posibile, în cazul nostru una dintre ele s-a împlinit. A fost un noroc. Alții nu l-au avut și nu-l vor avea. Vor rămîne în neființă. E prea abstract, e ca în teologia lui Leibniz, Dumnezeu alege o lume posibilă. Oliver Sacks e mult mai uman:
„Nu neg că mi-e teamă [de moarte]. Și totuși, predominant în mine e sentimentul de recunoștință. Am dăruit dragoste și am primit dragoste în dar; am fost binecuvîntat cu multe lucruri minunate...; m-am bucurat de cărți, de colindat prin lume, de idei și de scris. Am întreținut o legătură cu lumea... Mai presus de orice, am fost o ființă gînditoare, un animal cu rațiune, născut pe o planetă frumoasă, ceea ce în sine e un privilegiu enorm și o aventură unică”.
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Elyse Walters
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May 26, 2016
I listened to this audio yesterday while in the woods. (a gift to the world, by Oliver Sacks)
It felt so unflinchingly honest that it hurt.
Oliver Sacks was a remarkably accomplished man --His gifts were huge --and his heart even bigger!
Sad-tender-and so very beautiful!
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Iris P
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February 23, 2016
Short but profound reflections on life, aging and confronting sickness and the end of your life with dignity and grace.
In an essay called "Mercury", Sacks reflects:
"My father, who lived to 94, often said that the 80s had been one of the most enjoyable decades of his life. He felt, as I begin to feel, not a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective. One has had a long experience of life, not only one’s own life, but others’, too. One has seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts, revolutions and wars, great achievements and deep ambiguities, too. One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts. One is more conscious of transience and, perhaps, of beauty. At 80, one can take a long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was 40 or 60. I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together."
Oliver Sacks was a remarkable human being who chose to live an extraordinary life.
I feel gratitude today for Oliver Sacks and for the years I've enjoyed on this earth so far.
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Cheri
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November 26, 2019
”Eighty! I can hardly believe it. I often feel that life is about to begin, only to realize it is almost over.”
This is the first of Oliver Sach’s books, writings, I have read, and I loved reading his thoughts, musings, feelings, and observations as he faced the realization that the end of his life was near. The things he hasn’t done, whether he meant to ever do them or not, are now almost unthinkable – foreign languages he never learned, traveling the world and experiencing other cultures… and in a bit of (for me) literary serendipity, he is grateful for ”…what Nathaniel Hawthorne called ‘an intercourse with the world.’”
This includes four essays: Mercury, My Own Life, My Periodic Table, and Sabbath.
Simply profound, this was lovely and a perfect read to inspire your own thoughts on the things you are thankful for in this life.
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João Barradas
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March 18, 2019
Os profissionais da área da saúde sofrem de uma maldição: negam a própria vivência para se dedicarem a melhorar a vida dos outros. E não se contentam em cuidar deles – almejam sempre encontrar a cura para todas as maleitas que afectem os demais.
Sacks misturou a sua vida com a tentativa de desvendar os mistérios da mente dos seus doentes, aproveitando para desenvolver uma área tantas vezes esquecida – a medicina narrativa. Num paradoxo laboral (afinal, os médicos não podem estar doentes), Sacks é confrontado com a derradeira verdade que nos acompanha ao longo desta viagem terrena: a vida tem um prazo de validade. A percepção desta finitude, o aproximar da amiga da foice, permite apreciar melhor a beleza do que nos rodeia e aproveitar a vida de uma forma mais intensa.
Nesta pequena grande obra, Sacks presenteia os leitores com quatro simples ensaios, onde repassa alguns momentos que marcaram a sua existência e relembra algumas pessoas que deixaram uma marca no seu âmago. O objectivo último é o de alcançar uma paz assente na certeza do “dever cumprido”. Aproveitando a paixão do autor pela tabela periódica, percebe-se que a mítica frase “somos feitos de poeira estelar” concretiza-se na sua vida, sendo que a sua fusão não terminou no ferro mas cessou apenas no chumbo, numa explosão que atinge todos os que lerem estas letras.
O título concretiza-se, no final, porque “Gratidão” é o que sinto por ter lido este presente. por ter reencontrado um autor, que tenho como modelo de vida, por ter conhecido um novo rol de amigos… por isso e muito mais!
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David Rubenstein
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June 17, 2016
This is a set of four short, but beautiful and profound essays by Oliver Sacks. They are reflections on his life, after learning that he was terminally ill.
I have read several of his books on neurology, but in this short book I learned about Sacks himself, and his life. I never realized that he was an "elements guy". That is to say, his hobby was learning and collecting elements from the periodic table. And he had a lifelong love for the physical sciences, beyond his career in the biological sciences.
What is most impressive is Sacks' positive attitude, his gentle style, and his tolerance for people with beliefs unlike his own. I highly recommend this book for everyone.
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