Francois Rabelais

Gestures, in love, are incomparably more attractive, effective and valuable than words.

It is better to write of laughter than of tears, for laughter is the property of man.

How can I govern others, who can't even govern myself?

From the gut comes the strut and where hunger reigns strength abstains.

When I drink, I think; and when I think, I drink.

No noble man ever hated good wine.

One falls to the ground in trying to sit on two stools.

I drink no more than a sponge.

Remove idleness from the world and soon the arts of Cupid would perish.

Misery is the company of lawsuits.

Without health life is not life it is only a state of languor and suffering.

When undertaking marriage, everyone must be the judge of his own thoughts, and take counsel from himself.

The farce is finished. I go to seek a vast perhaps.

Frugality is for the vulgar.

There is no truer cause of unhappiness amongst men than, where naturally expecting charity and benevolence, they receive harm and vexation.

To good and true love fear is forever affixed.

The right moment wears a full head of hair: when it has been missed, you can't get it back; it's bald in the back of the head and never turns around.

Time, which wears down and diminishes all things, augments and increases good deeds, because a good turn liberally offered to a reasonable man grows continually through noble thought and memory.

We always long for the forbidden things and desire what is denied us.

If you wish to avoid seeing a fool you must first break your looking glass.

Debts and lies are generally mixed together.

The scent of wine, oh how much more agreeable, laughing, praying, celestial and delicious it is than that of oil!

How do you know antiquity was foolish? How do you know the present is wise? Who made it foolish? Who made it wise?

Believe me, 'tis a godlike thing to lend; to owe is a heroic virtue.

You have no obligation under the sun other than to discover your real needs, to fulfill them, and to rejoice in doing so.

How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?

Because just as arms have no force outside if there is no counsel within a house, study is vain and counsel useless that is not put to virtuous effect when the time calls.

I place no hope in my strength, nor in my works: but all my confidence is in God my protector, who never abandons those who have put all their hope and thought in him.

A bellyful is a bellyful.

Ignorance is the mother of all evils.

I won't undertake war until I have tried all the arts and means of peace.

Friends, you will notice that in this world there are many more ballocks than men. Remember this.

From the gut comes the strut, and where hunger reigns, strength abstains.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

Tell the truth and shame the devil.

Gestures in love are incomparably more attractive effective and valuable than words.

Science without conscience is the death of the soul.

A habit does not a monk make.

Half the world does not know how the other half lives.

It is my feeling that Time ripens all things; with Time all things are revealed; Time is the father of truth.

I have known many who could not when they would, for they had not done it when they could.

If the skies fall, one may hope to catch larks.

In their rules there was only one clause: Do what you will.

For he who can wait, everything comes in time.

You have no obligation under the sun other than to discover your real needs, to fulfill them, and to rejoice in doing so.

There are more old drunkards than old physicians.

No clock is more regular than the belly.

The remedy for thirst? It is the opposite of the one for a dog bite: run always after a dog, he'll never bite you; drink always before thirst, and it will never overtake you.

Everything comes in time to those who can wait.

Time ripens all things; with Time all things are revealed; Time is the father of truth.

We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us.