Hans Zinsser quotes

“Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world. The dragons are all dead and the lance grows rusty in the chimney corner. ... About the only sporting proposition that remains unimpaired by the relentless domestication of a once free-living human species is the war against those ferocious little fellow creatures, which lurk in dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice and all kinds of domestic animals; which fly and crawl with the insects, and waylay us in our food and drink and even in our love”
-- Hans Zinsser

Source : Hans Zinsser (2011). “Rats, Lice and History”, p.13, Transaction Publishers

#War Quotes #Adventure Quotes #Dark Quotes

“But however secure and well-regulated civilized life may become, bacteria, Protozoa, viruses, infected fleas, lice, ticks, mosquitoes, and bedbugs will always lurk in the shadows ready to pounce when neglect, poverty, famine, or war lets down the defenses.”
-- Hans Zinsser

#War Quotes #Shadow Quotes #Lice Quotes

“... [I]nfectious disease is merely a disagreeable instance of a widely prevalent tendency of all living creatures to save themselves the bother of building, by their own efforts, the things they require. Whenever they find it possible to take advantage of the constructive labors of others, this is the path of least resistance. The plant does the work with its roots and its green leaves. The cow eats the plant. Man eats both of them; and bacteria (or investment bankers) eat the man. ...”
-- Hans Zinsser

#Men Quotes #Roots Quotes #Effort Quotes

“Infectious Disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world.”
-- Hans Zinsser

#Adventure Quotes #World Quotes #Disease Quotes

“We have chosen to write the biography of our disease because we love it platonically - as Amy Lowell loved Keats - and have sought its acquaintance wherever we could find it. And in this growing intimacy we have become increasingly impressed with the influence that this and other infectious diseases, which span - in their protoplasmic continuities - the entire history of mankind, have had upon the fates of men.”
-- Hans Zinsser

Source : Hans Zinsser (2011). “Rats, Lice and History”, p.6, Transaction Publishers

#Writing Quotes #Fate Quotes #Men Quotes

“Throughout the early Christian period, every great calamity - famine, earthquake, and plague - led to mass conversions, another indirect influence by which epidemic diseases contributed to the destruction of classical civilization. Christianity owes a formidable debt to bubonic plague and to smallpox, no less than to earthquake and volcanic eruptions.”
-- Hans Zinsser

Source : Hans Zinsser (2011). “Rats, Lice and History”, p.139, Transaction Publishers

#Christian Quotes #Civilization Quotes #Earthquakes Quotes

“Our task as we grow older in a rapidly advancing science, is to retain the capacity of joy in discoveries which correct older ideas, and to learn from our pupils as we teach them.”
-- Hans Zinsser

Source : Hans Zinsser (1940). “As I Remember Him”

#Learning Quotes #Discovery Quotes #Ideas Quotes

“To the Parisians, and especially to the children, all Americans are now 'heros du cinema.' This is particularly disconcerting to sensitive war correspondents, if any, aware, as they are, that these innocent thanks belong to those American combat troops who won the beachhead and then made the breakthrough. There are few such men in Paris.”

“The problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay. Who will now teach him a lesson?”

Source : A. J. Muste's statement of 1941, as quoted in Howard Zinn "A People's History" (p. 416), 1980, and later quoted in Howard Zinn "The Twentieth Century: A People's History" (p. 159), May 9, 1984.

“I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.”

“The essence of spirituality is the duty to live to its full the glorious destiny of being human. The purpose of religion should be to empower all people in this adventure of living with dignity and fulfillment.”

Source : Agnivesh's Right Livelihood Award Acceptance Speech, www.rightlivelihoodaward.org. December 31, 2004.

“God’s jewels are often sent us in rough packages and by dark liveried servants, but within we find the very treasures of the King’s palace and the Bridegroom’s Love.”

“I'm not sure how to describe my style. A lot of my work is dark and looks a bit sad, which is strange because I'm such a smiley, over-the-top positive guy who wears gold shoes most days.”

“If you can socialize from the privacy of your desk at night in a dark room, you can be a smoother, cooler, funnier, sexy, more everything person than you actually are in real life.”

“I love nothing more than a good, rich, dark chocolate. It exhilarates. It satisfies.”

Source : Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

“The purely righteous do not complain of the dark, but increase the light; they do not complain of evil, but increase justice; they do not complain of heresy, but increase faith; they do not complain of ignorance, but increase wisdom.”

“Dark energy is incredibly strange, but actually it makes sense to me that it went unnoticed, because dark energy has no effect on daily life, or even inside our solar system.”