The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.

The diseases of the present have little in common with the diseases of the past save that we die of them.

Diseases are not immutable entities but dynamic social constructions that have biographies of their own.

Death from the bubonic plague is rated, with crucifixion, among the nastiest human experiences of all.

’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.

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

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

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

I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.

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

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

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

The best quarantine is hygiene.