Top 162 Quotes & Sayings by Francois Rabelais - Page 3

I drink for the thirst to come.

Against fortune the carter cracks his whip in vain. [Fr., Centre fortune, la diverse un chartier rompit nazardes son fouet.]

Never did a great man hate good wine.

A war undertaken without sufficient monies has but a wisp of force. Coins are the very sinews of battles.

When my soul leaves this human dwelling, I will not consider myself to have completely died, but to pass from one state to another, given that, in you and by you, I remain in my visible image in this world.

I have already related to you great and admirable things; but, if you might be induced to adventure upon the hazard of believing some other divinity of this sacred Pantagruelion, I very willingly would tell it you. Believe it, if you will, or otherwise, believe it not, I care not which of them you do, they are both alike to me. It shall be sufficient for my purpose to have told you the truth, and the truth I will tell you.

We will take the good-will for the deed.

How comes it that you curse, Frere Jean? It's only, said the monk, in order to embellish my language. They are the colors of Ciceronian rhetoric.

Such is the nature and make-up of the French that they are only good at the start. Then they are worse than devils, but, given time, they're less than women.

The age was still dark and reeked of the havoc and misfortunes of the Goths who had put all good literature to destruction. But, by God's goodness, in my time light and dignity were returned to letters, and I see there such improvement that today I would have great difficulty being admitted to the most elementary classes--I, who in my time was reputed to be (and not wrongly) to be the most knowledgeable person of the century.

Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind.

The Devil was sick - the Devil a monk would be, The Devil was well the devil a monk was he

The Lord forbid that I should be out of debt, as if indeed I could not be trusted.

I never sleep in comfort save when I am hearing a sermon or praying to God.

Pantagruel was telling me that he believed the queen had given the symbolic word used among her subjects to denote sovereign good cheer, when she said to her tabachins, A panacea.

Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it.

A little rain beats down a big wind. Long drinking bouts break open the tun(der).

Thought I to myself, we shall never come off scot-free.

It is the custom on Africa to always produce new and monstrous things. [Fr., Afrique est coustumiere toujours choses produire nouvelles et monstrueuses.]

War begun without good provision of money beforehand for going through with it is but as a breathing of strength and blast that will quickly pass away. Coin is the sinews of war.

I am going to seek a great purpose, draw the curtain, the farce is played.

Nature made the day for exercise, work and seeing to one's business; and ... it provides us with a candle, which is to say the bright and joyous light of the sun.

A crier of green sauce.

Go, all of you poor people, in the name of God the Creator, and let him forever be your guide. And henceforth, do not be beguiledby these idle and useless pilgrimages. See to your families, and work, each one of you, in your vocation, raise your children, and live as the good Apostle Paul teaches you.

I'd gladly do without a valet. I'm never so well treated as when I'm without a valet.

Appetite comes with eating.

Oh thrice and four times happy... those who plant cabbages.

I recognize in [my readers] a specific form and individual property, which our predecessors called Pantagruelism, by means of which they never take anything the wrong way that they know to stem from good, honest and loyal hearts.

Oh how unhappy is the prince served by such men who are so easily corrupted.

Debts and lies are generally mixed together. [Fr., Debtes et mensonges sont ordinairement ensemble rallies.]

One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span, Because to laugh is proper to the man.

Can there be any greater dotage in the world than for one to guide and direct his courses by the sound of a bell, and not by his own judgment.

If you say to me: "Master, it would seem that you weren't too terribly wise to have written these bits of nonsense and pleasant mockeries," I respond that you are hardly more so in finding amusement in reading them.

I never drink without a thirst, either present or future.

Between two stools one sits on the ground.

All things have their ends and cycles. And when they have reached their highest point, they are in their lowest ruin, for they cannot last for long in such a state. Such is the end for those who cannot moderate their fortune and prosperity with reason and temperance.

Hungry bellies have no cars.

A man of good sense always believes what he is told, and what he finds written down.

I know of a charm by way of a prayer that will preserve a man from the violence of guns and all manner of fire-weapons and engines but it will do me no good because I do not believe it

Ha! for a divine and lordly manor, there is nothing like solid ground.

Petite ville, grand renom. Small town, great renown.

There is nothing holy nor sacred to those who have abandoned God and reason in order to follow their perverse desires.