Diseases are not immutable entities but dynamic social constructions that have biographies of their own.
—Robert P. Hudson, 1983Quotes
What timid man does not avoid contact with the sick, fearing lest he contract a disease so near?
—Ovid, c. 10’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.
—Plautus, c. 180 BCDiseases, at least many of them, are like human beings. They are born, they flourish, and they die.
—David Riesman, 1937We should always presume the disease to be curable until its own nature proves it otherwise.
—Peter Mere Latham, c. 1845Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
—Samuel Johnson, 1750How sickness enlarges the dimension of a man’s self to himself! He is his own exclusive object.
—Charles Lamb, 1833Death from the bubonic plague is rated, with crucifixion, among the nastiest human experiences of all.
—Guy R. Williams, 1975The best quarantine is hygiene.
—Richard D. Arnold, 1871If they prescribe a lot of remedies for some sickness or other, it means that the sickness is incurable.
—Anton Chekhov, 1904All the world is topsy-turvy, and it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.
—Jack London, 1912In times of pestilence, gaiety and joyousness are most profitable.
—Jacme d’Agramont, 1348Even diseases have lost their prestige, there aren’t so many of them left.
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 1960