“ Everybody should be interested in access to primary and secondary education for everybody. Paul Farmer
“ The essence of global health equity is the idea that something so precious as health might be viewed as a right. Paul Farmer
“ Anywhere you have extreme poverty and no national health insurance, no promise of health care regardless of social standing, that's where you see the sharp limitations of market-based health care. Paul Farmer
“ I've been asked a lot for my view on American health care. Well, 'it would be a good idea,' to quote Gandhi. Paul Farmer
“ But if you're asking my opinion, I would argue that a social justice approach should be central to medicine and utilized to be central to public health. This could be very simple: the well should take… Paul Farmer
“ 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
“ So I can't show you how, exactly, health care is a basic human right. But what I can argue is that no one should have to die of a disease that is treatable. Paul Farmer
“ What the American public thinks is very important to the future of global health. Many people are moved by the idea that there is unnecessary suffering in the world, and we could do a lot to stop it.… Paul Farmer
“ I mean, everybody should have access to medical care. And, you know, it shouldn't be such a big deal. Paul Farmer
“ It is clear that the pharmaceutical industry is not, by any stretch of the imagination, doing enough to ensure that the poor have access to adequate medical care. Paul Farmer
“ WL’s [White Liberals] think all the world’s problems can be fixed without any cost to themselves. We don’t believe that. There’s a lot to be said for sacrifice, remorse, even pity. It’s what separates… Paul Farmer
“ Haiti is always talking about decentralization and nothing has been so obvious, perhaps a weakness, as the centralized nature of Haitian society as being revealed by the earthquake. I mean, they lost… Paul Farmer
“ If any country was a mine-shaft canary for the reintroduction of cholera, it was Haiti - and we knew it. And in retrospect, more should have been done to prepare for cholera... which can spread like w… Paul Farmer
“ We have to design a health delivery system by actually talking to people and asking, 'What would make this service better for you?' As soon as you start asking, you get a flood of answers. Paul Farmer
“ The biggest public health challenge is rebuilding health systems. In other words, if you look at cholera or maternal mortality or tuberculosis in Haiti, they're major problems in Haiti, but the bigges… Paul Farmer
“ Human rights violations are nit accidents; they are not random in distribution or effect. Rights violations are, rather, symptoms of deeper pathologies of power and are linked intimately to the social… Paul Farmer
“ If you look just at the decades after 1934, you know it's hard to point to really inspired and positive support from outside of Haiti, to Haiti, and much easier to point to either small-minded or down… Paul Farmer
“ You can't have public health without a public health system. We just don't want to be part of a mindless competition for resources. We want to build back capacity in the system. Paul Farmer
“ There is nothing wrong with underlining personal agency, but there is something unfair about using personal responsibility as a basis for assigning blame while simultaneously denying those who are bei… Paul Farmer
