Quotes from Doc Cochran

Doc is a favorite of many fans, including me. His weaknesses and bitter cynicism are tempered by a rare compassion, which he feels even for the less-than-noble patients he treats.

Season 1 episode 1

(examining a man who's been shot in the head, but is still alive and speaking) You know there's something peculiar about this man's cerebral setup where they can just write off the forebrain as being the center of thought and speech.

Season 1 episode 2

Jane: You got a dark turn o' mind.
Doc: I see as much misery outta them movin’ to justify their selves as them that set out to do harm.

I’d rather be lucky than smart.

Season 1 episode 5

Sir, I have no vaccine for the sickness the man in Room 8 didn’t have. The closest place that does, to my knowledge, is Fort Kearney. If you want a remedy for the epidemic that you have no reason to believe will break out, I would send somebody there right away.

Season 1 episode 6

Doc: Bein’ as you have a gift for it, and I’m gonna have sick people up to my hips. I was wonderin’ if you might wanna come back to camp?
Jane: My best friend died. (Starts to leave)
Doc: And he ain’t coming back! (Jane turns around) Now will you help me? You can do your drinkin’ off work, like I do.

Season 1 episode 7

You listen to me now, Reverend. You are goddamn exhausted and you give yourself no respite. And your seizures may owe somethin’ to that, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if you had a lesion in your goddamn head, and that’s what’s giving you the seizures and generating your chats with the goddamn divinity. No goddamn offense intended.

Season 1 episode 8

Doc: When did the pain start?
Merrick: Am I warm?
Doc: Answer the question.
Merrick: Well, it’s become more concentrated and severe. (Doc slaps him) Why did you strike me?
Doc: To secure your attention.

Season 1 episode 9

(to a drunken Jane) I been lettin’ it go, but if the idea is for you to drink more and more ‘til I say somethin’, I am hereby officially sayin’ I wish you would stop fuckin’ drinkin’.

Rev: As long as He wills, this must be my part. To be afraid, as well.
Doc: Well, if this is His will, Reverend, He is a sonofabitch.

Season 1 episode 10

Al: How’s Trixie’s spirits seem to you?
Doc: Her abscess seems fine.
Al: That ain’t what I asked.
Doc: And I don’t answer for the state of people’s spirits.

Season 1 episode 11

Doc: (about Jewel) She wants me to brace her leg. So her draggin’ it doesn’t drive you crazy.
Al: So what’d you tell her?
Doc: Not to worry about your moods, that you generate those yourself and then find your excuse for havin’ ‘em.

Season 1 episode 12

(giving Jewel her boot – what a bedside manner!) I make this stipulation. You develop any stiffness or numbness, you report these. You do not conceal these symptoms in order to sustain your hopes for the miraculous benefits of your fuckin’ boot.

(trying a prayer for the dying Reverend, in one of the most moving scenes of the series) If I was a more adaptable primate or one of your regular petitioners, I suspect I wouldn’t feel this pain. I guess I’d have a wad of cartilage covering the patella, protecting me from this discomfort. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, just, please, God, take that minister. What conceivable godly use is his protracted suffering to you? What conceivable godly use? What conceivable godly use was the screaming of all those men? Did you need to hear their death agonies to know your omnipotence? Mama! Mother, find my arm! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy they, they shot my leg off, it hurts so bad. It hurts so bad. Admitting my understanding’s imperfect, trusting that you have a purpose, praying that you consider it served, I beg you to relent. Thy will be done, amen.