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Pestilence Quotes

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Pestilence Quotes

“Just as plagues were visited on Pharaoh so will pestilences and disasters be visited on the white man. Why, it has already started: God has begun to send them heat when they expect cold; he sends them cold when they expect heat. Their crops are dying, their children are being born with all kinds of deformities, the rivers and lakes are coming out of the belly of the earth to wash them away.”

MenKindChildrenEarthBornWhiteDyingColdRiversDisasterAll KindsHeatLakesComing OutWhite ManBellyPlagueCropsPestilenceDeformityPharaohsRivers And Lakes
Author:Malcolm X
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“In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences. A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they have taken no precautions.”

MenMindFirstsMadeDreamTakenMerePassing AwayPrecautionPestilenceBad Dream
Book:Nobel Prize Library
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“Truth usually makes no sense. If your desire is for everything to make perfect sense, then you should take refuge in fiction. In fiction, all threads tie together in a neat bow and everything moves smoothly from one point to the next to the next. In real life, though... nothing makes sense. Bad things happen to good people. The pious die young while the wicked live until old age. War, famine, pestilence, death all occur randomly and senselessly and leave us more often than not scratching our heads and hurling the question 'why?' into a void that provides no answers.”

PeopleIfsShouldWarRealHappensAgeTogetherMovingYoungDesireDiesNextAnswersPerfectFictionThings HappenReal LifeOld AgeMake SenseTiesWickedBad ThingsGood PeopleVoidBowsThreadRefugeNeatFaminePiousDie YoungBad Things HappenPestilenceHurlingNothing Makes Sense
Book:Tigerheart
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“I read it [history] a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all — it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.”

ThinkingMenShouldLittlesDoeWarDealsDutyKingsPagesInventionOddDullWearyPopeQuarrelsTiresomePestilenceVex
Book:Northanger abbey [followed by] Persuasion
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“The Four Horsemen whose Ride presages the end of the world are known to be Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. But even less significant events have their own Horsemen. For example, the Four Horsemen of the Common Cold are Sniffles, Chesty, Nostril, and Lack of Tissues; the Four Horsemen whose appearance foreshadows any public holiday are Storm, Gales, Sleet, and Contra-flow.”

WorldWarEndsCommonKnownFourEventsExampleColdFlowAppearanceStormSignificantHolidayEnd Of The WorldFamineTissuesGalePestilenceHorsemenSleetFour HorsemenCommon ColdSignificant Events
Author:Terry Pratchett
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“[...] endless action and reaction. Those beautifully rounded pebbles which you gather on the sand and which you hold in your hand and marvel at their exceeding smoothness, were chiseled into their varies and graceful forms by the ceaseless action of countless waves. Nature is herself a great worker and never tolerates, without certain rebuke, any contradiction to her wise example. Inaction is followed by stagnation. Stagnation is followed by pestilence and pestilence is followed by death.”

HandsActionFormCertainWiseExampleWorkersWaveEndlessReactionsSandContradictionTolerateVaryInactionStagnationPebblesRebukePestilenceAction And Reaction
Author:Frederick Douglass
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“Wave to the nice tourists, Sparkle. I promise it won't cause pestilence and firestorms." Elena bit the inside of her cheek at Aodhan's glare-she'd never seen anyone crack his reserved shell. "Sparkle and Bluebell, nice." "Never," Aodhan said, hands stubbornly on the girder, "ever repeat that. Illium seems to have forgotten I promised to separate his tongue from his mouth should he utter it again in this immortal lifetime.”

ShouldSaidHandsSeemsCausesBitsNicePromiseMouthsLifetimeForgottenWaveTongueRepeatsImmortalCracksCheeksShellsI PromiseTouristsReservedSparkleGlarePestilenceBluebells
Book:Archangel's Legion
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“A study of Disease-of Pestilences methodically prepared and deliberately launched upon man and beast-is certainly being pursue in the laboratories of more than one great country. Blight to destroy crops, Anthrax to slay horses and cattle, Plague to poison not armies but whole districts - such are the lines along which military science is remorselessly advancing.”

MenCountryWholeLinesStudyMilitaryDiseaseHorseArmyPreparedPursueBeastPoisonPlagueLaboratoryCropsAdvancingCattleGreat CountryPestilenceBlightAnthrax
Book:Churchill: The Power of Words
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“In the arts of life main invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence and famine. ... There is nothing in Man's industrial machinery but his greed and sloth: his heart is in his weapons.”

MenHeartArtScienceDeathNatureProduceWeaponsGreedChemistryMachineryPlagueFamineSlaughterSlothPestilence
Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
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“The star [Tycho's supernova] was at first like Venus and Jupiter, giving pleasing effects; but as it then became like Mars, there will next come a period of wars, seditions, captivity and death of princes, and destruction of cities, together with dryness and fiery meteors in the air, pestilence, and venomous snakes. Lastly, the star became like Saturn, and there will finally come a time of want, death, imprisonment and all sorts of sad things.”

WantGivingFirstsWarTogetherScienceNextStarsPleasureCitiesAirEffectsPeriodsDestructionObservationMarsSnakesFieryImprisonmentVenusCaptivityJupiterSad ThingsSaturnPestilenceMeteorsSupernovaVenomous
Author:Tycho Brahe
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“Consider the problem of over-population. Rapidly mounting human numbers are pressing ever more heavily on natural resources. What is to be done?... The annual increase of numbers should be reduced. But how? We are given two choices -- famine, pestilence and war on the one hand, birth control on the other. Most of us choose birth control.”

ShouldHumansTwoWarDoneProblemHandsChoicesGivenNaturalNumbersBirthResourcesIncreasePopulationFamineNatural ResourcesAnnualsBirth ControlPestilenceTwo Choices
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“As for man, there is little reason to think that he can in the long run escape the fate of other creatures, and if there is a biological law of flux and reflux, his situation is now a highly perilous one. During ten thousand years his numbers have been on the upgrade in spite of wars, pestilences, and famines. This increase in population has become more and more rapid. Biologically, man has for too long a time been rolling an uninterrupted run of sevens.”

IfsThinkingMenYearsLittlesLongHas BeensWarReasonRunningLawNumbersSituationFateThousandTenCreaturesIncreasePopulationSpiteLong RunsRollingThousand YearsRapidsFamineFluxPestilence
Book:Earth Abides
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“Here is a fearful enemy of God and man — the liquor traffic; it makes ruthless war upon the people; it blasts and destroys their homes as with pestilence and fire; it kills savagely, cruelly, more than a hundred thousand of them every year; robbing them first and driving wives and children to rain and despair.”

PeopleMenYearsFirstsChildrenWarHomeEnemyFireWifeThousandDespairHundredRainDrivingFearfulTrafficRuthlessLiquorBlastRobbingPestilence
Author:Neal S. Dow
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“The wickedness of a loose or profane author is more atrocious than that of a giddy libertine or drunken ravisher, not only because it extends its effects wider, as a pestilence that taints the air is more destructive than poison infused in a draught, but because it is committed with cool deliberation.”

WritingAirInfluenceEffectsCommittedPoisonDestructiveWickednessProfaneDeliberationGiddyPestilenceDraughtLibertine
Book:The Rambler: In Four Volumes
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“Incens'd with indignation Satan stood Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war.”

WarFireSkyHugeHairSatanShakesLengthIndignationArcticCometsPestilence
Book:The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost, Rendered Into Grammatical Construction ... With Notes ... To which are Prefixed Remarks on Ellipsis and Transposition ... By J. Buchanan
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“For a bag of pepper, they could cut each other's throats without hesitation, and would forswear their souls... The bizarre obstinacy of that desire made them defy death in a thousand shapes; the unknown seas, the loathsome diseases; wounds, captivity, hunger, pestilence and despair. It made them great! By heavens! It made them heroic; and it made them pathetic, too, in their craving for trade with the inflexible death levying its toll on young and old”

MadeSoulYoungDesireHeavenCuttingSeaThousandShapesDespairDiseaseTradeHungerWoundsBagsThroatHeroicBizarreFlexibleCravingPatheticHesitationTollsPeppersCaptivityObstinacyYoung And OldPestilenceOld Soul
Book:Joseph Conrad: Selected Novels
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“Disease an never be conquered, can never be quelled by emotion's willful screaming or faith's symbolic prayer. It can only be conquered by the energy of humanity and the cunning in the mind of man. In the patience of a Curie, in the enlightenment of a Faraday, a Rutherford, a Pasteur, a Nightingale, and all other apostles of light and cleanliness, rather than of a woebegone godliness, we shall find final deliverance from plague, pestilence, and famine.”

MenMindLightHumanityEnergyPrayerEmotionDiseaseEnlightenmentFinalsCunningPlagueSymbolicApostlesFamineGodlinessCleanlinessDeliveranceNightingalesPestilencePasteur
Author:Sean O'Casey
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