Francois Rabelais Quotes

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

A habit does not a monk make.

Tell the truth and shame the devil.

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

Keep running after a dog and he will never bite you.

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

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

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

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

Ignorance is the mother of all evils.

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

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

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

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.]

Science without conscience is the soul's perdition.

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

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.

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

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

I drink no more than a sponge.

I never sleep comfortably except when I am at sermon or when I pray to God.

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

Gargantua, at the age of four hundred four score and forty- four years begat his son Pantagruel, from his wife, named Badebec, daughter of the King of the Amaurotes in Utopia, who died in child-birth: because he was marvelously huge and so heavy that he could not come to light without suffocating his mother.

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

Languages exist by arbitrary institutions and conventions among peoples; words, as the dialecticians tell us, do not signify naturally, but at our pleasure.

Debts and lies are generally mixed together.

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

No clock is more regular than the belly.

I'd rather write about laughing than crying, For laughter makes men human, and courageous.

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

Wait a second while I take a swig off this bottle: it's my true and only Helicon, my Caballine fount, my sole Enthusiasm. Here, drinking, I deliberate, I reason, I resolve and conclude. After the epilogue I laugh, I write, I compose, I drink. Ennius drinking would write, writing would drink.

Machination is worth more than force.

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

Everything comes in time to those who can wait.

So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.

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.

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

Nature abhors a vacuum.

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

It's a shame to be called "educated" those who do not study the ancient Greek writers.

Bring down the curtain, the farce is over

Frugality is for the vulgar.

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.

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

I build only living stones--men.

The probity that scintillizes in the superfices of your persons informs my ratiocinating faculty, in a most stupendous manner, of the radiant virtues latent within the precious caskets and ventricles of your minds.

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.]

To good and true love, fear is forever affixed.

There are more old drunkards than old physicians.

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