proverb · Words worth keeping
Disease is oft the tax of pleasure.
Disease is oft the tax of pleasure.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying calls disease a tax that pleasure may bring. It gives enjoyment the image of a later cost without specifying the activity or a proven connection.
What the words are saying
Oft makes the connection frequent rather than absolute, while tax turns illness into an unwanted charge. A critical reading must not infer that a sick person caused or deserved their condition. If used as an analogy, attention belongs on a known consequence of an identified choice, not a moral verdict drawn from suffering.
Everyday example
A reader discusses the metaphor of a later cost while refusing to treat illness as evidence of a person’s wrongdoing.
When to use it
Use it critically to examine a moralised cost metaphor.
What it does not mean
Illness does not establish culpability, and the phrase is not a medical explanation.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
Entry 431 · Disease
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- English