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Quotes

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

—William Shakespeare, c. 1600

Disease is not of the body but of the place.

—Latin proverb

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

—Helen Keller, 1936

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.

—Samuel Butler, c. 1902

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

—Leslie Jamison, 2020

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

—Samuel Hopkins Adams, 1913

Plagues are as certain as death and taxes.

—Richard Krause, 1982

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

—Guy R. Williams, 1975

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

—Samuel Johnson, 1750

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

—Peter Mere Latham, c. 1845

’Tis the destroyer, or the devil, that scatters plagues about the world.

—Cotton Mather, 1693

The beginning of health lies in knowing the disease.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615

What timid man does not avoid contact with the sick, fearing lest he contract a disease so near?

—Ovid, c. 10