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Quote by Siddhartha Mukherjee

“We are chemical apes: having discovered the capacity to extract, purify, and react molecules to produce new and wondrous molecules, we have begun to spin a new chemical universe around ourselves. Our bodies our cells, our genes are thus being immersed and reimmersed in a changing flux of molecules -pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, plastics, cosmetics, estrogens, food products, hormones, even novel forms of physical impulses, such as radiation and magnetism. Some of these, inevitably, will be carcinogenic. We cannot wish this world away; our task, the, is to sift through it vigilantly to discriminate bona fide carcinogens from innocent and useful bystanders.”

Quote by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Book:The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
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Work

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

This comprehensive biography delves into the origins, development, and treatment of cancer, offering a historical and scientific perspective on one of the most significant health challenges of our time. more

Author

Siddhartha Mukherjee
Siddhartha Mukherjee

Siddhartha Mukherjee is a distinguished physician and oncologist, born in 1970. He has made substantial contributions to cancer research and has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'. more

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“There are other beliefs which, though disproved countless times, never die out, because they appeal, not to something in everyone, but to a certain perennial type of person. An example is, the belief that everyone is at bottom selfish, or that no one ever acts intentionally except from motives of self-interest. There is a perennial human type to whom this belief is peculiarly and irresistibly congenial. It is almost never a woman. It is a kind of man who is deficient in generous or even disinterested impulses himself, and knows it, but keeps up his self-esteem by thinking that everyone else is really in the same case. He prides himself, both on having the perspicacity to realise, what most people disguise even from themselves, that everyone is selfish, and on having the uncommon candour not to conceal this unpleasant home truth. Who has not met people of this type? In the Australian-English of 50 years ago, there was a wonderful expression for this kind of man: he was said to be 'as flash as a rat with a gold tooth”

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“Every morning, I eat this dish called -hope-. Crumbs mostly, but without it, I'm not even human.' A long pause while her mind spun. 'But that's just it. There are no guarantees. Because if you can guarantee it, it's not hope.' [Joe] ... He [Pockets] adjusted his feet. 'I've been in some places where there is no hope, and yet somehow it swims through the cracks. Rises to the surface. I've found hope staring me in the face when reason screamed I had non. No matter what you do--ignore it, shove it in a closet, drown it with drink and pill, or stab it with science, experts, and talking heads--you can't kill hope. Not in all of human history has hope ever been laid to rest. When we breathe in, it's the stuff that expands our lungs. It's the reason we're not just dust.' She tried to laugh. 'I thought love did all that.' He sucked through his teeth. 'It's tough to tell those two apart, mum. But if you press me, love is what makes us who we are. Hope is how we express us. Hope is love with legs.”

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