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Eula Biss Quotes

Powerful Eula Biss for Daily Growth

About Eula Biss

Eula Biss is an acclaimed American essayist and Professor of Nonfiction at Northwestern University. Born on August 8, 1978, in Chicago, Illinois, she spent her early years in the predominantly white town of Evanston before moving to Southampton, New York, when she was eight. This dual upbringing, immersed in both a racially homogeneous and a racially diverse environment, has significantly influenced her writing. Eula Biss earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and went on to receive her Master's degree from the University of Minnesota before completing her Ph.D. in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Iowa in 2007. Her doctoral dissertation was later expanded into her first book, "Note from the Beloved World: Or, Everlasting Arms," which won the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Her most notable work, "On Immunity: An Inoculation" (2014), is a powerful exploration of the metaphors and myths surrounding immunity and vaccination. This book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Biss's essays are known for their keen insights, eloquent prose, and ability to challenge readers to question their assumptions about race, identity, and community. In addition to her literary achievements, Eula Biss is also a dedicated teacher and mentor. She has taught at various universities and colleges, including Bennington College, the University of Iowa, and the University of New Mexico. Her work continues to inspire readers and influence critical discussions on race, identity, and social justice in America.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"To be human is to be constantly between, held apart from."

The quote by Eula Biss suggests that being human is a perpetual state of existing in-between, separated or isolated from others and our surroundings. This separation can stem from various factors such as cultural, emotional, intellectual, or physical boundaries. It emphasizes the paradoxical nature of humanity - we are social beings who crave connection, yet we often find ourselves alienated or estranged. The idea is that this tension between unity and separation is an inherent part of what it means to be human.

"Empathy, I have come to understand, requires more than a willingness to recognize our shared humanity; it requires a willingness to live with ambiguity and uncertainty."

Eula Biss's quote emphasizes that empathy goes beyond just recognizing the commonalities we share as humans. It demands an acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty, acknowledging that human experiences are complex and often difficult to fully comprehend or resolve. This perspective encourages us to approach others with patience, humility, and a deep understanding that our individual perspectives may never perfectly align, yet empathy is essential for fostering connections and promoting harmony in diverse communities.

"To love anything is to see the divinity within it."

This quote by Eula Biss emphasizes a spiritual appreciation for all things, suggesting that love transcends physical or superficial aspects, and instead recognizes the inherent beauty and worth in each object, being, or idea. In other words, when we love something, we are recognizing its divine quality - a testament to the interconnectedness of the universe and our own capacity for spiritual awareness.

"Racism is an effect of the belief in the reality of biological race, and so racism cannot be eradicated without first admitting that race is a social construct."

This quote by Eula Biss emphasizes that the root cause of racism lies in the widespread acceptance of the idea that there are inherent biological differences between racial groups, which is scientifically false (race being a social construct). To eliminate racism, therefore, requires acknowledging that the concept of race as biologically distinct lacks validity. In essence, Biss suggests that challenging and changing the belief in biological races can ultimately lead to eradicating racism.

"The body's ability to heal itself is one of its most remarkable features."

The quote underscores the inherent resilience of the human body, suggesting that it has an innate capacity for recovery and restoration from injury or illness. This healing process can be seen as a testament to the intricate design and extraordinary functions of the body, reminding us that despite its vulnerability, it is also incredibly robust and capable of self-repair. The quote encourages appreciation for this remarkable feature and reinforces our belief in the human body's natural ability to maintain health and wellness.

In some areas, immunity has been eroded so much that the child who's not vaccinated is now actually more vulnerable to the complications of infectious diseases.

- Eula Biss

Some, Been, Infectious, Eroded

Yes, there's a higher rate of people living below the poverty line who aren't vaccinated. But it's much rarer for that to be a product of choice than a product of circumstance.

- Eula Biss

Product, Living, Below, Rarer

Nigeria and Pakistan are two countries that have had a lot of trouble with polio. And part of the reason is that there's a lot of political unrest, and people really distrust what the government is doing. That has an effect on people's health, and it has an effect on the health of children.

- Eula Biss

Doing, Reason, Nigeria, Unrest

Herd immunity is, it turns out, not incredibly easy to understand. It took me quite a bit of reading before I fully grasped it. But understanding herd immunity is essential to understanding why we vaccinate the way we do.

- Eula Biss

Before, Took, Grasped, Essential

In the case of Pakistan, the CIA actually used a fake vaccination campaign to try to locate Osama bin Laden, so now vaccination is associated with espionage.

- Eula Biss

Locate, Espionage, Bin, Fake

One of the shortcomings of our medical system is that doctors have very little time with their patients.

- Eula Biss

Medical, System, Very, Little Time

There's a cultural expectation that everyone will be immunized, in part to protect the entire population. When people refuse that expectation, they're indulging in a certain kind of political or social immunity.

- Eula Biss

Will, Everyone, Social, Immunity

A vaccine introduces a small amount or a tempered version of the virus into the body - just enough to that the body is able to recognize it and deal with it when it encounters it again in the future.

- Eula Biss

Small, Deal, Amount, Vaccine

Imagine the action of a vaccine not just in terms of how it affects a single body, but also in terms of how it affects the collective body of a community.

- Eula Biss

Single, How, Imagine, Vaccine

There's this tendency to think of the individual and the collective are somehow at odds or separate. But I think that's really false. We're all both. And when the individual suffers, the collective suffers, and vice versa.

- Eula Biss

Think, I Think, Vice, Odds

In the 19th century, smallpox was widely considered a disease of filth, which meant that it was largely understood to be a disease of the poor. According to filth theory, any number of contagious diseases were caused by bad air that had been made foul by excrement or rot.

- Eula Biss

Bad, Been, Considered, Filth

I think that people's resistance to vaccination isn't going to disappear until we address some of the nonmedical reasons for that resistance and people's discomfort and distrust of the government. That's bigger than what most medical professionals can handle.

- Eula Biss

Medical, Think, Some, Discomfort

I think that protecting children at the age where they're most vulnerable against diseases that are highly contagious is prudent.

- Eula Biss

Think, I Think, Protecting, Contagious

There's a lot of essay writing that could pass for journalism and journalism that could pass for essay. Some of it is just taxonomy.

- Eula Biss

Some, Pass, Lot, Essay

The belief that public health measures are not intended for people like us is widely held by many people like me. Public health, we assume, is for people with less - less education, less-healthy habits, less access to quality health care, less time and money.

- Eula Biss

Education, Habits, Access, Time And Money

When I was researching the Victorian anti-vaccination movement, those activists often used a vampire as a metaphor for the vaccinator.

- Eula Biss

Used, Often, Researching, Activists

My son is fully vaccinated, but there is one immunization on the standard schedule that he did not receive on time. This was meant to be his very first shot, the hep B administered to most babies immediately after birth.

- Eula Biss

Standard, Very, Babies, Meant To Be

Art-making was part of my daily life from a very young age, and I still love that kind of everyday art-making.

- Eula Biss

Love, Daily Life, Very, Everyday

Some of the most interesting research that I did was about risk assessment and how ordinary citizens like me handle risk assessment and how irregular our risk assessments are.

- Eula Biss

Interesting, Some, Like, Assessment

One of the mysteries of hep B immunization is that vaccinating only 'high risk' groups, which was the original public health strategy, did not bring down rates of infection.

- Eula Biss

Original, Infection, Which, Strategy

I had already drafted the manuscript that would become my first book by the time I graduated from college, but I had no idea what to do with it.

- Eula Biss

College, Idea, By The Time, Graduated

I talked to lots of people who are vaccine-hesitant, and I actually was one myself until I got further into this project, and most of them actually are in my demographic: so well-educated people with advanced degrees who are upper middle-class and have read quite a bit on the subject.

- Eula Biss

Advanced, Subject, Upper, Well-Educated

The risk of getting Hep B from a blood transfusion is a tiny number, but it's a bigger number than the risk of side effects from the vaccine.

- Eula Biss

Blood, Bigger, Side, Vaccine

Our constitution got built around the idea of minority protection.

- Eula Biss

Constitution, Idea, Built, Minority

What I saw when I was doing research is that in pursuit of a middle ground, people will kind of split the difference between the two extremes that they're hearing. And I think what's problematic is that people are seeing vaccinating on schedule, on time, as an extreme position.

- Eula Biss

Doing, Pursuit, I Think, Hearing

Yes, we can make prudent choices as parents, but we can't create an environment where there's zero risk for our children. Not only is that impossible, I don't think it's desirable, either.

- Eula Biss

Impossible, Think, Yes, Prudent

Most of us believe that dirt is good for our kids, but some of us are wary of the grass in the parks, which may or may not have been treated with toxic chemicals.

- Eula Biss

Some, Treated, Which, Grass

We've been using vaccination in some form for hundreds of years now. We have almost nothing in our modern medicine that we've been using that long, and it's been consistently productive even though, you know, the older vaccines were much more dangerous than vaccines we're using now.

- Eula Biss

Some, Been, Almost, Hundreds

In the story of Thetis and Achilles, it's clear this isn't really a safe environment. She's gone down to the River Styx - the dead are being ferried across in the background. There's something in this mythology that says that if you want invulnerability, if you want immortality, you pay a price.

- Eula Biss

Dead, Down, Immortality, Achilles

As for mercury, a child will almost certainly get more mercury exposure from her immediate environment than from vaccination. This is true, too, of the aluminum that is often used as an adjuvant in vaccines to intensify the immune response.

- Eula Biss

Vaccines, Almost, Mercury, Response

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