Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot.

This saying is a traditional Dutch proverb (often also found across Germanic and Romance-language proverb traditions) contrasting the sudden onset of illness with the slow pace of recovery. It reflects premodern and early modern experience of disease, when infections or injuries could strike quickly, while convalescence—without modern antibiotics, analgesia, or physical therapy—was typically prolonged. The horseback/foot imagery belongs to a wider European stock of proverbial metaphors about speed and social status: a rider arrives swiftly, while a pedestrian moves slowly. In Dutch collections it is commonly treated as folk wisdom about health, patience, and the need for sustained care after sickness begins.

The proverb warns that harm to the body can happen rapidly, but restoration is gradual. “On horseback” suggests speed and force: illness can overtake a person abruptly, sometimes through a single exposure or moment of overexertion. “Departs on foot” emphasizes that healing is incremental and requires time, rest, and discipline. As a moral lesson, it discourages complacency about health and cautions against expecting quick fixes; it also implies that prevention is easier than cure. More broadly, it can be applied metaphorically to setbacks of many kinds—damage is easy to do, repair is slow.

1) “Illness comes on horseback and goes away on foot.”
2) “Sickness comes on horseback, but goes away on foot.”
3) “Disease comes on horseback, but goes away on foot.”