Archive

Quotes

Men worry over the great number of diseases, while doctors worry over the scarcity of effective remedies.

—Bian Qiao, c. 500 BC

In times of pestilence, gaiety and joyousness are most profitable.

—Jacme d’Agramont, 1348

All the world is topsy-turvy, and it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.

—Jack London, 1912

If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.

—George W. Bush, 2005

Health can make money, but money cannot make health.

—Maria Edgeworth, 1833

Health in all lands is among the indispensable guarantees of human progress.

—Helen Keller, 1936

Hygienic law, like martial law, supersedes rights in crises.

—Samuel Hopkins Adams, 1913

Men take diseases, one of another. Therefore let men take heed of their company.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1600

Health care delivery is one of the tragedies still in America.

—Jewel Plummer Cobb, 1989

Disease is not of the body but of the place.

—Latin proverb

Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world.

—Hans Zinsser, 1935

Everyone who is sick is someone else’s patient zero.

—Leslie Jamison, 2020

We should always presume the disease to be curable until its own nature proves it otherwise.

—Peter Mere Latham, c. 1845