Francois Rabelais Quotations | Page 2

In this mortal life, nothing is blessed throughout.

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.

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

It is said, proverbially, that happy is the doctor who is called in when the disease is on its way out.

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.

Fate leads the willing, and th' unwilling draws.

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.

No noble man ever hated good wine.

The deed will be accomplished with the least amount of bloodshed possible, and, if possible ..., we'll save all the souls and send them happily off to their abode.

It is quite a common and vulgar thing among humans to understand, foresee, know and predict the troubles of others. But oh what a rare thing it is to predict, know, foresee and understand one's own troubles.

If you wish to be good "Pantagruelists" (which is to say, live in peace, joy, health, and always dining well), never put too much faith in people who look out through a hole.

Not everyone is a debtor who wishes to be; not everyone who wishes makes creditors.

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

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

Don't limp in front of the lame.

One should never pursue the hazards of fortune to their very ends andit behooves all adventurers to treat their good luck with reverence, neither bothering nor upsetting it.

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.

Few and signally blessed are those whom Jupiter has destined to be cabbage-planters. For they've always one foot on the ground andthe other not far from it. Anyone is welcome to argue about felicity and supreme happiness. But the man who plants cabbages I now positively declare to be the happiest of mortals.

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

For God, nothing is impossible. And, if he wanted, in the future women would give birth from their ears.

Parisians are so besotted, so silly and so naturally inept that a street player, a seller of indulgences, a mule with its cymbals,a fiddler in the middle of a crossroads, will draw more people than would a good Evangelist preacher.

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

Always open all gates and roads to your enemies, and rather make for them a bridge of silver, to get rid of them. [Fr., Ouvrez toujours a vos ennemis toutes les portes et chemin, et plutot leur faites un pont d'argent, afin de les renvoyer.]

Do not limp before the lame. [Old Fr., Ne clochez pas devant les boyteus.]

What harm in learning and getting knowledge even from a sot, a pot, a fool, a mitten, or a slipper. [Fr., Que nuist savoir tousjours et tousjours apprendre, fust ce D'un sot, d'une pot, d'une que--doufle D'un mouffe, d'un pantoufle.]

Plain as a nose in a man's face.

Hungry bellies have no ears. [Fr., La ventre affame n'point d'oreilles.]

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

There are more old drunkards than old physicians. [Fr., Il y a plus de vieux ivrongnes qu'il y a de vieux medecins.]

Row on [whatever happens]. [Lat., Vogue la galere.]

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

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

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.

The dress does not make the monk. [Fr., L'habit ne fait le moine.]

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.

A good intention does not mean honor. [Fr., A bon entendeur ne faut qu'un parole.]

Indeed, said the monk, a mass, a matins, and vespers well rung are half-said.

Because, according to the sage Solomon, wisdom does not enter into a soul that seeks after evil, and knowledge without conscienceis the ruin of the soul, it behooves you to serve, love and fear God and to put all your thoughts and hope in him, and by faith founded in charity, be joined to him, such that you never be separated from him by sin.

I am going to seek a great perhaps.

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've often heard it said, as the common proverb goes, that a fool can teach a wise man well.

If you understand why a monkey in a family is always mocked and harassed, you understand why monks are rejected by all--both old and young.

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

According to true military art, one should never push one's enemy to the point of despair, because such a state multiplies his strength and increases his courage which had already been crushed and failing, and because there is no better remedy for the health of beaten and overwhelmed men than the absence of all hope.

Strike the iron whilst it is hot.

Of a young hermit, an old devil. [Fr., De jeune hermite, vieil diable.]

So that we may not be like the Athenians, who never consulted except after the event done. [Fr., Afin que ne semblons es Athenians, qui ne consultoient jamais sinon apres le cas faict.]

The most Christian France is the sole wet-nurse to the Roman court.

I build only living stones--men.

Misery is the company of lawsuits.

I do not drink more than a sponge.

A habit does not a monk make.

He that has patience may compass anything.

I drink no more than a sponge.

So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.

A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.

I drink eternally. For me it is an eternity of drinking, and a drinking up of eternity.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

Debts and lies are generally mixed together.

If the head is lost, all that perishes is the individual; if the balls are lost, all of human nature perishes.

If you wish to avoid seeing a fool, you must first break your mirror

Appetite comes with eating.....but thirst goes away with drinking.

Ignorance is the mother of all evils.

He 63 ways of getting money, the most common, most honorable ones being staling, thieving, and robbing.