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“Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.”
― Albert Camus, The Plague

“It is straightforward—and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if he cared for humankind, he would never have given us religion.”
― Martin Amis, The Second Plane: September 11, 2001-2007

“When reading the history of the Jewish people, of their flight from slavery to death, of their exchange of tyrants, I must confess that my sympathies are all aroused in their behalf. They were cheated, deceived and abused. Their god was quick-tempered unreasonable, cruel, revengeful and dishonest. He was always promising but never performed. He wasted time in ceremony and childish detail, and in the exaggeration of what he had done. It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god. He had solemnly promised the Jews that he would take them from Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. He had led them to believe that in a little while their troubles would be over, and that they would soon in the land of Canaan, surrounded by their wives and little ones, forget the stripes and tears of Egypt. After promising the poor wanderers again and again that he would lead them in safety to the promised land of joy and plenty, this God, forgetting every promise, said to the wretches in his power:â€�'Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander until your carcasses be wasted.' This curse was the conclusion of the whole matter. Into this dust of death and night faded all the promises of God. Into this rottenness of wandering despair fell all the dreams of liberty and home. Millions of corpses were left to rot in the desert, and each one certified to the dishonesty of Jehovah. I cannot believe these things. They are so cruel and heartless, that my blood is chilled and my sense of justice shocked. A book that is equally abhorrent to my head and heart, cannot be accepted as a revelation from God.

When we think of the poor Jews, destroyed, murdered, bitten by serpents, visited by plagues, decimated by famine, butchered by each, other, swallowed by the earth, frightened, cursed, starved, deceived, robbed and outraged, how thankful we should be that we are not the chosen people of God. No wonder that they longed for the slavery of Egypt, and remembered with sorrow the unhappy day when they exchanged masters. Compared with Jehovah, Pharaoh was a benefactor, and the tyranny of Egypt was freedom to those who suffered the liberty of God.

While reading the Pentateuch, I am filled with indignation, pity and horror. Nothing can be sadder than the history of the starved and frightened wretches who wandered over the desolate crags and sands of wilderness and desert, the prey of famine, sword, and plague. Ignorant and superstitious to the last degree, governed by falsehood, plundered by hypocrisy, they were the sport of priests, and the food of fear. God was their greatest enemy, and death their only friend.

It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful, and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. He is without a redeeming feature. In the mythology of the world he has no parallel. He, only, is never touched by agony and tears. He delights only in blood and pain. Human affections are naught to him. He cares neither for love nor music, beauty nor joy. A false friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite, and tyrant, sincere in hatred, jealous, vain, and revengeful, false in promise, honest in curse, suspicious, ignorant, and changeable, infamous and hideous:—such is the God of the Pentateuch.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses

“Whether plagues are managed quickly doesn't just depend on hardworking doctors and scientists. It depends on people who like to sleep in on weekends and watch movies and eat French fries and do the fantastic common things in life, which is to say, it depends on all of us. Whether a civilization fares well during a crisis has a great deal to do with how the ordinary, nonscientist citizen responds. A lot of the measures taken against plagues discussed in this book will seem stunningly obvious. You should not, for instance, decide diseased people are sinners and burn them at a literal or metaphorical stake, because it is both morally monstrous and entirely ineffective. But them a new plague crops up, and we make precisely the same mistakes we should have learned from three hundred years ago.”
― Jennifer Wright, Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

“What sort of gods make rats and plagues and dwarfs?”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

“If in some radical miracle, the Abrahamic God revealed his existence to the world, I’d accept the belief in the deity â€� but I still wouldn't worship it. The jealous and angry God that justified the killings of millions, sent plagues upon first borns, and abhorred homosexuals would not be worthy of my worship.”
― David G. McAfee, Mom, Dad, I'm an Atheist: The Guide to Coming Out as a Non-Believer

“Why listen to me? I can only predict epidemics and plagues.”
― Larry Kramer, The Normal Heart & The Destiny of Me

“Verse 12 [of Ex. 12) tells us that the judgment of Yahweh is not only on the Egyptians but also on their deities. This is probably an allusion to the fact that Egyptians would often pray for the safety of their firstborn, particularly firstborn sons, as was the custom in many ancient patriarchal cultures. The death of the firstborn would be seen as a sign of the anger or perhaps the impotence of their gods. This is worth pondering when it comes to the death of Jesus as God’s only begotten, or beloved, Son. Would Jesusâ€� contemporaries have assumed his death was a manifestation of God’s wrath? Probably so. In any event, Yahweh is showing his superiority over the spirits behind the pagan deities, and thus we should not overlook the supernatural struggle that is implied to be behind the contest of wills between Moses and Pharaoh.”
― Ben Witherington III, Making a Meal of It: Rethinking the Theology of the Lord's Supper

“It is not possible to live in a malaria endemic zone without either being sickened by it oneself or without knowing someone who has had it or been hospitalized with it or without personally knowing at least one man, woman or child who has died from it or without knowing at least one woman who has lost her unborn baby from it.”
― T.K. Naliaka

“He tossed on the pillow, trying to dislodge the flies that tormented him every waking hour. Had there always been so many? He had never noticed them so keenly before; but now, tied to this bed, he began to think that had he been Pharaoh, he would have let the Hebrew children go anywhere they wanted, with whatever they wanted, at the beginning of the fourth plague, without any more argument.”
― Sarah Brazytis, The Letter

“These “witchesâ€� with their feline friends, pictured often as evil creatures of the night, were not the haggard, worn, and crooked nosed demonic evil creatures of myth nor were they pointed hat wearing broom riders. They were not cursed spinsters of the night riding phallic symbols with a black cat on their tail end. Neither were they Charmed Ones with misunderstood powers that were unjustly hunted for having said powers.

These were merchants with families, friends, and businesses that were most likely in their community for years before the events. They were not “synagogues of Satan� nor Satan worshipers at all.

They were often the elderly women, besides merchants, that were many times Christian in faith. Women who were midwives, herbalists, healers that helped their communities when they were needed to ease pain and suffering. They were also pagans, non-Judeo-Christian religionists, and were like their other counterparts and helpers of their communities. These were good people, ordinary people.”
― L.B. Ó Ceallaigh, Revenants, Retroviruses, and Religion: How Viruses and Disease Created Cultural Mythology and Shaped Religious Perspectives

“The current coronavirus pandemic is a (relatively mild) reminder of the decisive role that plagues played in human history.”
― Azar Gat, Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today's Culture Wars

“As long as we remain a planet of 7-plus billion, close-packed and widely traveled, with a love for meat, eggs, and milk, infections will be a force in our lives.”
― Charles Kenny, The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease

“Trade and collaboration, the transfer of goods, people and ideas, are central to supporting health systems as well as developing and rolling out tests, treatments, and cures. We cannot respond effectively alone. We have to respond collectively.”
― Charles Kenny, The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease