The point is that if you think you can pinpoint the cause, then you can fool yourself into thinking you can avert the cause. It's deeply egotistical. It's life played as a grand insurance policy. Our myth-making around cancer stems from the same impulse. Because we don't know exactly why most of it happens, we weave a makeshift wisdom around it, a false prophet, which seeps into the common story and feeds our hunger to understand why. The guilt is a byproduct, a way to assign blame and seek absolution. It's a lesser evil than the forces of randomness. And it gives us the illusion of control. Alanna Mitchell
Some Similar Quotes
  1. I'm oxygen and he's dying to breathe. - Tahereh Mafi
  2. I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world. - Mother Teresa
  3. Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come. - Matt Groening
  4. Happiness is the china shop love is the bull. - H.l. Mencken
  5. People say that eyes are windows to the soul. - Khaled Hosseini
More Quotes By Alanna Mitchell
  1. They are very good odds. And I know that my scientific brain believes them, if not my panic-ridden, maternal one. Those odds should have made a difference to my reaction. I should have been able to take the diagnosis calmly, intelligently, reflectively. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>But...
  2. The predominant cancer metaphor is war. We fight cancer, usually valiantly. We attack tumors and try to annihilate them and bring out our arsenals to do that, and so on. It's us against cancer. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>This metaphor has come in for its share of...
  3. For the first time, I understood the ancients' need to find explanations for why things happen. It's a quintessential human imperative. Random is not emotionally satisfying. Therefore, lightning was the bolt from an angry god. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>Crop failure was punishment for failing to honor...
  4. The point is that if you think you can pinpoint the cause, then you can fool yourself into thinking you can avert the cause. It's deeply egotistical. It's life played as a grand insurance policy. Our myth-making around cancer stems from the same impulse. <span...
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