“As I try to live while confronting an incurable illness, I remember how much I enjoyed the youthful process of learning. Thus, I now read and learn from every book possible. I remember one of Blaise Pascal’s ‘Pensées,’ in my own translation:
‘Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature. A puff of gas, a drop of water is sufficient to kill him. But the difference between him and what kills him is that he knows he is dying.’
“It is my brain that still defines me. When I am thinking, I am living. I must fuel the brain by reading. It is that alone that separates me from the cancer that attacks my bone marrow and spills out too many white blood cells. Of course, I will fail as I try not to ‘go gentle into that good night.’ Perhaps it’s that failure that will again remind me I am alive.” Continue reading “Quotes”