Rachel Monroe:

The trauma high is, it turns out, a well-documented phenomenon. Something about the thrill of being able-bodied, of being the one in the uniform and not the one strapped to the stretcher. And of being essential -- the opposite feeling of sitting in your living room and looking at a bomb go off over and over again, watching the people who run away from it and the people who run toward it, and thinking about what kind you might turn out to be.

[But] your trauma high is always someone else's trauma.

Decius:

Be careful what you get good at.

Lauren Clark:

It's good to have a plan, but if something extraordinary comes your way, you should go for it.

Judith Warner:

We're all losers now. There's no pleasure to it.

Jeff Haden:

Taking responsibility when things go wrong instead of blaming others isn't masochistic, it's empowering -- because then you focus on doing things better or smarter next time. And when you get better or smarter, you also get happier.