---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It is steadily forgotten that health is a…"
description: "\"It is steadily forgotten that health is a diathesis as much as is scrofula or syphilis and that each of these is a mode of growth.\" — Clifford Allbutt"
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/565/clifford-allbutt-48855_doctor_it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is_541800.jpg"
---

#  It is steadily forgotten that health is a diathesis as…

![“It is steadily forgotten that health is a diathesis as much as is scrofula or syphilis and that each of these is a mode of growth.” quote by Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/565/clifford-allbutt-48855_doctor_it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is_541800.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/565/clifford-allbutt-48855_doctor_it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is_541800.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/565/clifford-allbutt-48855_doctor_it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is_541800.jpg)

> “It is steadily forgotten that health is a diathesis as much as is scrofula or syphilis and that each of these is a mode of growth.”

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Health is a dynamic balance, not merely the absence of disease, and can be shaped by growth processes.

**In simple terms:** Health involves balance and growth.

Key Takeaway

Cultivate holistic health.

Themes

wellness balance growth

Mood

educational inspirational

Type

philosophical practical

When to use this quote

- lifestyle
- education
- public health
- personal care

Key Concepts

holistic health preventive medicine

Questions to Reflect On

- How can we prioritize growth in health?
- What practices support a balanced life?

A Different Perspective

Societal focus on disease can neglect wellness.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Doctor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/doctor/) [Forgotten](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/forgotten/) [Forgotten Health](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/forgotten-health-4528555/) [Growth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/growth/) [Health](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/health/) [Health Diathesis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/health-diathesis-4528554/) [Scrofula Syphilis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/scrofula-syphilis-4528557/) [Steadily Forgotten](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/steadily-forgotten-4528556/) [Syphilis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/syphilis/)

## Related quotes

> [The fight against syphilis demands a fight against prostitution, against prejudices, old habits, against previous conceptions, general views among them not least the false…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-hitler/the-fight-against-syphilis-demands-a-fight-against-prostitution/)

[Adolf Hitler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-hitler/)

> [This is the Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying “Ooh good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-clarkson/this-is-the-renault-espace-probably-the-best-of-the-people-carriers/)

[Jeremy Clarkson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-clarkson/)

> [We all have the republican spirit in our veins, like syphilis in our bones. We are democratized and venerealized.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-baudelaire/we-all-have-the-republican-spirit-in-our-veins-like-syphilis-in-our/)

[Charles Baudelaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-baudelaire/)

> [Only 1 percent of the homosexual population in America will die of old age. The average life expectancy for a homosexual in the United…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rod-parsley/only-1-percent-of-the-homosexual-population-in-america-will-die-of/)

[Rod Parsley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rod-parsley/)

> [“No matter where you go, no matter what you touch, there is cancer and syphilis. It is written in the sky; it flames and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-miller/no-matter-where-you-go-no-matter-what-you-touch-there-is-cancer-and/)

[Henry Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-miller/)

> [Even diseases have lost their prestige, there aren't so many of them left. Think it over... no more syphilis, no more clap, no more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-ferdinand-celine/even-diseases-have-lost-their-prestige-there-aren-t-so-many-of-them/)

[Louis-Ferdinand Celine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-ferdinand-celine/)

> [God says, 'One woman, one man,' and everyone says, 'Oh, that's old hat, that's that old Bible stuff,'" he said. "But I'm thinking, well…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/phil-robertson/god-says-one-woman-one-man-and-everyone-says-oh-that-s-old-hat-that-s/)

[Phil Robertson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/phil-robertson/)

> [He who knows syphilis knows medicine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-osler/he-who-knows-syphilis-knows-medicine/)

[William Osler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-osler/)

> [“The symptoms syphilis engendered worsened over time. In addition to the unsightly skin ulcers that pockmarked the body in the later stages of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lindsey-fitzharris/the-symptoms-syphilis-engendered-worsened-over-time-in-addition-to/)

[Lindsey Fitzharris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lindsey-fitzharris/)

> [The Philippines is a terrible name, coming from Spain. Phillip II was the father of the inquisition, who I believe died of syphilis. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/imelda-marcos/the-philippines-is-a-terrible-name-coming-from-spain-phillip-ii-was/)

[Imelda Marcos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/imelda-marcos/)

> [By all means, there should be no children when either mother or father suffers from such diseases as tuberculosis, gonorrhea, syphilis, cancer, epilepsy, insanity,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-sanger/by-all-means-there-should-be-no-children-when-either-mother-or-father/)

[Margaret Sanger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-sanger/)

> [No more children should be born when the parents, though healthy themselves, find that their children are physically or mentally defective.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-sanger/no-more-children-should-be-born-when-the-parents-though-healthy/)

[Margaret Sanger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-sanger/)

> [“Oh no.' Straight raised his eyes to me, and a slight smile touched the corners of his lips. 'A philosophy of life is more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sigizmund-krzhizhanovsky/oh-no-straight-raised-his-eyes-to-me-and-a-slight-smile-touched-the/)

[Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sigizmund-krzhizhanovsky/)

> [“One day in 1948 or 1949, the Brentwood County Mart, a shopping complex in an upscale neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, was the scene…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-ross/one-day-in-1948-or-1949-the-brentwood-county-mart-a-shopping-complex/)

[Alex Ross](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-ross/)

> [Morality is a venereal disease. Its primary stage is called virtue; its secondary stage, boredom; its tertiary stage, syphilis.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karl-kraus/morality-is-a-venereal-disease-its-primary-stage-is-called-virtue-its/)

[Karl Kraus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karl-kraus/)

## More by Clifford Allbutt

> [The use of thesis-writing is to train the mind, or to prove that the mind has been trained; the former purpose is, I trust,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/the-use-of-thesis-writing-is-to-train-the-mind-or-to-prove-that-the/)

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

> [Thus we work not in the light of public opinion but in the secrecy of the chamber; and perhaps the best of us are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/thus-we-work-not-in-the-light-of-public-opinion-but-in-the-secrecy-of/)

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

> [ Students who have attended my \[medical\] lectures may remember that I try not only to teach them what we know, but also to realise… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/students-who-have-attended-my-medical-lectures-may-remember-that-i/)

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

> [In science, law is not a rule imposed from without, but an expression of an intrinsic process. The laws of the lawgiver are impotent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/in-science-law-is-not-a-rule-imposed-from-without-but-an-expression/)

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

> [Medicine, likewise, because it deals with things, has always been for our serener circles a Cinderella, blooming maid as happily as she has grown…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/medicine-likewise-because-it-deals-with-things-has-always-been-for/)

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

> [I am sick of diseases, I want to know origins and processes…If we are to prevent disease it is to the beginning of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/i-am-sick-of-diseases-i-want-to-know-origins-and-processes-if-we-are/)

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

> [We are led to think of diseases as isolated disturbances in a healthy body, not as the phases of certain periods of bodily development.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/we-are-led-to-think-of-diseases-as-isolated-disturbances-in-a-healthy/)

[Clifford Allbutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

[Explore all 8 Clifford Allbutt quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/)

## More Doctor quotes

> [Many patients imagine that they have tried everything. True, they have used many remedies, but they have never had the cause of their infirmity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-d-palmer/many-patients-imagine-that-they-have-tried-everything-true-they-have/)

[Daniel D. Palmer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-d-palmer/)

> [I think people need to be comfortable questioning the authority of a doctor.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susannah-cahalan/i-think-people-need-to-be-comfortable-questioning-the-authority-of-a/)

[Susannah Cahalan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susannah-cahalan/)

> [The doctor who diagnosed me with ALS, or motor neuron disease, told me that it would kill me in two or three years.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-hawking/the-doctor-who-diagnosed-me-with-als-or-motor-neuron-disease-told-me/)

[Stephen Hawking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-hawking/)

> [Every patient carries her or his own doctor inside.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-schweitzer/every-patient-carries-her-or-his-own-doctor-inside/)

[Albert Schweitzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-schweitzer/)

> [“As a special branch of general philosophy, pathogenesis had never been explored. In my opinion it had never been approached in a strictly scientific…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/blaise-cendrars/as-a-special-branch-of-general-philosophy-pathogenesis-had-never-been/)

[Blaise Cendrars](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/blaise-cendrars/)

> [A creative space is an important thing. There are so many studios that feel like doctor's offices in Nashville. I couldn't write there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brad-paisley/a-creative-space-is-an-important-thing-there-are-so-many-studios-that/)

[Brad Paisley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brad-paisley/)

> [We ought to observe that practice which is the hardest of all-especially for young physicians-we ought to throw in no medicine at all-to abstain-to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-randolph-of-roanoke/we-ought-to-observe-that-practice-which-is-the-hardest-of-all/)

[John Randolph of Roanoke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-randolph-of-roanoke/)

> [The miracle drugs (neuroleptics) cause the worst plague of brain damage in medical history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-breggin/the-miracle-drugs-neuroleptics-cause-the-worst-plague-of-brain-damage/)

[Peter Breggin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-breggin/)

> [“old-fashioned, gentle Scottish physician, unmoved by the considerations of profit and personal gain that could so disfigure medicine. That doctors should consider themselves businessmen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-mccall-smith/old-fashioned-gentle-scottish-physician-unmoved-by-the-considerations/)

[Alexander McCall Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-mccall-smith/)

> [I've never bought this idea of taking a therapeutic distance. If I see a student or house staff cry, I take great faith in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-verghese/i-ve-never-bought-this-idea-of-taking-a-therapeutic-distance-if-i-see/)

[Abraham Verghese](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-verghese/)

> [Heart surgeons do not have the world's smallest egos: when you ask them to name the world's three leading practitioners, they never can remember…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-paretsky/heart-surgeons-do-not-have-the-world-s-smallest-egos-when-you-ask/)

[Sara Paretsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-paretsky/)

> [Thankfully, I found a doctor at Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Scott Hammer, who diagnosed my chronic fatigue as the Epstein-Barr virus, and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tucker-halpern/thankfully-i-found-a-doctor-at-presbyterian-hospital-in-new-york/)

[Tucker Halpern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tucker-halpern/)

> [My parents are so supportive of whatever we want to do and completely nurtured that, and they're so proud of that as well. My…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hannah-john-kamen/my-parents-are-so-supportive-of-whatever-we-want-to-do-and-completely/)

[Hannah John-Kamen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hannah-john-kamen/)

> [Before we can wave the handkerchief, we have to have a cold.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-d-dangoor/before-we-can-wave-the-handkerchief-we-have-to-have-a-cold/)

[Robert D Dangoor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-d-dangoor/)

> [Tuberculosis, starvation, fatigue, and there are many who have no desire to live.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-r-murrow/tuberculosis-starvation-fatigue-and-there-are-many-who-have-no-desire/)

[Edward R. Murrow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-r-murrow/)

[Browse all 3,922 Doctor quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/doctor/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "It is steadily forgotten that health is a diathesis as much as is scrofula or syphilis and that each of these is a mode of growth.",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Clifford Allbutt"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is-a-diathesis-as-much-as-is/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Doctor"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is-a-diathesis-as-much-as-is/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/565/clifford-allbutt-48855_doctor_it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is_541800.jpg",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/565/clifford-allbutt-48855_doctor_it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is_541800.jpg",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/565/clifford-allbutt-48855_doctor_it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is_541800.jpg",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“It is steadily forgotten that health is a diathesis as much as is scrofula or syphilis and that each of…” — Clifford Allbutt",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Clifford Allbutt",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-allbutt/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "It is steadily forgotten that health...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is-a-diathesis-as-much-as-is/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-allbutt/it-is-steadily-forgotten-that-health-is-a-diathesis-as-much-as-is/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
