Archive

Quotes

He who dies of epidemic disease is a martyr.

—Muhammad, c. 630

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

—Cotton Mather, 1693

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

—Samuel Hopkins Adams, 1913

If they prescribe a lot of remedies for some sickness or other, it means that the sickness is incurable.

—Anton Chekhov, 1904

The beginning of health lies in knowing the disease.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615

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

—Guy R. Williams, 1975

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

The sick man is the parasite of society.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889

Disease is not of the body but of the place.

—Latin proverb

Even diseases have lost their prestige, there aren’t so many of them left.

—Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 1960

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

—Jack London, 1912

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

—Leslie Jamison, 2020