Fionnáin quoted Rats, Lice and History by Hans Zinsser
The classic chronicle of the impact disease and plagues have had on history and society …
[Rats and lice] are sufferers even as we are, and quite as innocent of intentional malice. For though we acquire the disease from them, they get it from each other and from us. So there [->] would seem to be as much to be said on one side as on the other.
— Rats, Lice and History by Hans Zinsser (Page 166 - 167)
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I balk at some of the things Zinsser writes in this book about other humans, but this observation on the innocence of lice and rats in the spread of disease is very important and a credit to him.