A Quote by Jonathan Alter

Every patient reacts a little differently, both biologically and psychologically. The only constant in cancer is inconstancy; the only certainty is a future of uncertainty, a truism for all of modern life but one made vivid by life-threatening illness.

Jonathan Alter

Quote Topics

Both Cancer Certainty Constant Differently Every Future Illness Inconstancy Life Life-Threatening Little Made Modern Modern Life Only Patient Psychologically Threatening Truism Uncertainty Vivid

Quote Author

Jonathan Alter
American - Journalist
Born: October 6, 1957

First, the only certainty is that there is no certainty. Second, every decision, as a consequence, is a matter of weighing probabilities. Third, despite uncertainty we must decide and we must act. And lastly, we need to judge decisions not only on the results, but on how they were made.

Robert Rubin

When you have a life-threatening illness like cancer, and you're faced with the alternative, it gives doing whatever it is you do a much sweeter taste.

Ronnie Montrose

For someone to say your son has a life-threatening illness only on the phone is hard to believe.

Mason Mount

Women smirk at baldness. How adorable would they find it if they began to lose their breasts in their late twenties? If both tits just shrunk up - unevenly I might add - and eventually turned into wine-cork nubs. Then it would be a different story. Then men would get the pity that they deserve. As far as I'm concerned, baldness is the male breast cancer only worse, because almost everyone gets it. True, it's not life threatening. Just social-life threatening. But in New York City, there is no difference.

Augusten Burroughs

Cancer is really a slew of rare diseases. Lung cancer has 700 sub-types, breast cancer has 30,000 mutations which means that every cancer in its own right is a rare disease. Sharing data globally in this context is really important from a life-threatening perspective.

Patrick Soon-Shiong

Five hundred years before Christ was born, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus told his students that "everything changes except the law of change". He said: "You cannot step in the same river twice." The river changes every second; and so does the man who stepped in it. Life is a ceaseless change. The only certainty is today. Why mar the beauty of living today by trying to solve the problems of a future that is shrouded in ceaseless change and uncertainty-a future that no one can possibly foretell?

Dale Carnegie

Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last.

Arthur Schopenhauer

My friends call me a 'pace-setter.' Sometimes I am impatient, I think, but you must be fast and flexible in business because uncertainty is the only certainty in life.

Guler Sabanci

I think from my experience in war and life and science, it all has made me believe that we have one life on this planet. We have one chance to live it and to contribute to the future of society and the future of life. The only "afterlife" is what other people remember of you.

Craig Venter

Biological death is only a mechanical problem, it can be solved and man can live millions of years! Do not believe in life after death! Seek for the life within the life! The medusa of Turritopsis nutricula is biologically immortal and this little creature is a big inspiration for us! He who thinks positively reaches his target!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security

John Allen Paulos

Uncertainty would be the only certainty there's, and realizing how to stay with insecurity could be the only protection

John Allen Paulos

If you break your finger, that's on you, right? But if you get a chronic illness, if you get a serious illness or life-threatening illness, that's something I think we should all share the cost in because we all face the same unknowns and the same risks.

Mark Cuban

The mark of a mature, psychologically healthy mind is indeed the ability to live with uncertainty and ambiguity, but only as much as there really is. Uncertainty is no virtue when the facts are clear, and ambiguity is mere obfuscation when more precise terms are applicable.