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“I began to realize that coming in such close contact with my own mortality had changed both nothing and everything. Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. After the diagnosis, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. But now I knew it acutely. The problem wasn’t really a scientific one. The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“Life wasn’t about avoiding suffering.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“Everyone succumbs to finitude. I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state. Most ambitions are either achieved or abandoned; either way, they belong to the past. The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described, hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“The tricky part of illness is that, as you go through it, your values are constantly changing. You try to figure out what matters to you, and then you keep figuring it out. It felt like someone had taken away my credit card and I was having to learn how to budget. You may decide you want to spend your time working as a neurosurgeon, but two months later, you may feel differently. Two months after that, you may want to learn to play the saxophone or devote yourself to the church. Death may be a one-time event, but living with terminal illness is a process.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
Colin’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Colin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
654 books
|
56 friends
1,724 books
|
65 friends
238 books
|
81 friends
270 books
|
48 friends
57 books
|
314 friends
26 books
|
27 friends
298 books
|
34 friends
19 books
|
72 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Colin
Lists liked by Colin
