Bill Wasik Quotes & Sayings

Dogs' bond with humans is bred into their very cells, their genes; it's written through their entire history, a chronicle that can be read in their eyes. But inside this black wire cage, in the lolling eyes of what remained of a Pekingese, there was nothing legible at all. One could hardly grieve for the dog, because the dog was already gone. To euthanize it - which a BAWA vet mercifully did, moments later, with the customary dose of anesthesia - was merely to acknowledge its departure. — Bill Wasik

Rabies' residence in people is also, by these standards, accidental, though its inability to spread through humans largely boils down to issues of anatomy and behavior: although the virus does express itself in human saliva, humans lack a propensity to bite and the sharpened teeth with which to do it effectively. — Bill Wasik

Rabies coevolved to live in the dog, and the dog coevolved to live with us - and this confluence, the three of us, is far too combustible a thing. — Bill Wasik

Our only consolation, as we feel our own strength failing us, is to feel that we may help those who come after us to do more and to do better than ourselves, fixing their eyes as they can on the great horizons of which we only had a glimpse," pronounced Pasteur, with characteristic gallantry. Many — Bill Wasik

To his family, Pasteur remarks in frustration, "How difficult it is to obtain the triumph of truth! Opposition is a useful stimulant, but bad faith is such a pitiable thing. How is it that they are not struck with the results shown by statistics? — Bill Wasik

The most lavish prophylaxis against hydrophobia in the hunting hound was carried out, fittingly, by the kings of France. In the hunting accounts of the French palace, historians have found annual outlays for all the king's hounds to undergo a special ceremony. They were transported to the Church of St. Menier les Moret, in order "to have a mass sung in the presence of the said hounds, and to offer candles in their sight, for fear of the mal de rage" - that is, the disease of rabies. One wonders whether the hounds howled along. — Bill Wasik