I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a longing to contribute to a noble cause rather than merely endure personal suffering.
Christopher Hitchens reflects on his experience as a gravely ill patient, expressing a desire to engage in meaningful action, such as fighting for a good cause or risking his life for others. This sentiment highlights the intrinsic human need to find purpose in suffering and to transform personal trials into efforts that can help others.
In practice
This quote would be suitable for a speech about resilience and finding purpose in adversity.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
The miners lost because they had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win.
People have got to get together and work together. I'm tired of the kind of oppression that white people have inflicted on us and are still trying to inflict.
So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, 'The good outnumber you, and we always will.'
The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service.
The best protection any woman can have... is courage.
The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.
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