From Mark Twain's Letters (by way of The Singular Mark Twain by Fred Kaplan)

I was born with an incurable disease, so was everybody—the same one that every machine has—& the knowledge of the fact frightens nobody, damages nobody; but the moment a name is given the disease, the whole thing is changed: fright ensues, & horrible depression, & the life that has learned its sentence is not worth living.

On an unrelated note, Mary O. McCarthy probably did the right thing.

On an equally unrelated note, Jack Handey has been funny in the past and will probably be funny in the future.