Disease

A disease is a particular abnormal condition, a disorder of a structure or function, that affects part or all of an organism. The causal study of disease is called pathology. Disease is often construed as a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs.

Most Read This Week Tagged "Disease"

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases

A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery

The Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History

Viral: The Search For the Origin Of COVID-19

The Good Virus: The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage

Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History

Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World (Turning Points in Ancient History)

More most read this week tagged "disease"...

Disease Books

The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History

Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

More disease books...

Lists

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

Public Health

202 books — 121 voters

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Modern Science Nonfiction

443 books — 299 voters

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Modern Medical Science (nonfiction)

250 books — 119 voters

It's Probably Nothing...* by Micki Myers

The Cancer Survivors Club by Chris Geiger

Funny Books About Cancer

35 books — 43 voters

These Books Will Kill You

359 books — 320 voters

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough

Unsettling Memoirs & Biographies

530 books — 377 voters

Related Genres

Health
Illness

Featured News & Interviews

Get Ready! Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026

Read »

Quotes Tagged “Disease”

“ Here's the thing about Hazel: Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to be remembered. I do, too. That's what bothers me most, is being another unremembered casualty in the ancient and inglorious war against disease. I want to leave a mark. But Van Houten: The marks humans leave are too often scars. You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rock star and you think, "They'll remember me now," but Here's the thing about Hazel: Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to be remembered. I do, too. That's what bothers me most, is being another unremembered casualty in the ancient and inglorious war against disease. I want to leave a mark. But Van Houten: The marks humans leave are too often scars. You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rock star and you think, "They'll remember me now," but (a) they don't remember you, and (b) all you leave behind are more scars. Your coup becomes a dictatorship. Your minimall becomes a lesion. ... We are like a bunch of dogs squirting on fire hydrants. We poison the groundwater with our toxic piss, marking everything MINE in a ridiculous attempt to survive our deaths. I can't stop pissing on fire hydrants. I know it's silly and useless--epically useless in my current state--but I am an animal like any other. Hazel is different. She walks lightly, old man. She walks lightly upon the earth. Hazel knows the truth: We're as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we're not likely to do either. People will say it's sad that she leaves a lesser scar, that fewer remember her, that she was loved deeply but not widely. But it's not sad, Van Houten. It's triumphant. It's heroic. Isn't that the real heroism? Like the doctors say: First, do no harm. The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention. The guy who invented the smallpox vaccine didn't actually invent anything. He just noticed that people with cowpox didn't get smallpox. ... But then I wanted more time so we could fall in love. I got my wish, I suppose. I left my scar. ... What else? She is so beautiful. You don't get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers. ...more ”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

132 likes

“ Love is a curious mixture of opposites, a blend of extreme selfishness and total devotion. A paradox! Besides which, love, everybody is always talking about love, love, but love isn't something you choose, you catch it like a disease, you get trapped in it, like a disaster. ...more ”
― Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness

29 likes

More quotes...