Having a clear understanding of why we do what we do in palliative care is one of the factors that mitigates against burnout. This chapter explores some of the core values and central concepts in palliative care. The chapter focuses on underlying basic principles including, care, compassion, and empathy and how they influence the right to effective palliative care. Other less commonly addressed core concepts such as resilience, humility, audacity, and sensitivity to differences are discussed. The chapter then explores the issues around goal-focused care and how it is applied in palliative care and the contentious issues as to what constitutes a good death. It is the hope of the editors that this new contribution will provides a frame of reference that can assist clinicians as we navigate many of the challenges confronted in the delivery of palliative and end of life care.