1.
We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us.
Francois Rabelais
2.
A habit does not a monk make.
Francois Rabelais
3.
Tell the truth and shame the devil.
Francois Rabelais
4.
A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.
Francois Rabelais
5.
Keep running after a dog and he will never bite you.
Francois Rabelais
6.
If the skies fall, one may hope to catch larks.
Francois Rabelais
7.
If you wish to avoid seeing a fool, you must first break your mirror
Francois Rabelais
8.
You have no obligation under the sun other than to discover your real needs, to fulfill them, and to rejoice in doing so.
Francois Rabelais
9.
If the head is lost, all that perishes is the individual; if the balls are lost, all of human nature perishes.
Francois Rabelais
10.
Ignorance is the mother of all evils.
Francois Rabelais
11.
Gestures, in love, are incomparably more attractive, effective and valuable than words.
Francois Rabelais
12.
When I drink, I think; and when I think, I drink.
Francois Rabelais
13.
One falls to the ground in trying to sit on two stools.
Francois Rabelais
14.
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.]
Francois Rabelais
15.
Science without conscience is the soul's perdition.
Francois Rabelais
16.
Appetite comes with eating.....but thirst goes away with drinking.
Francois Rabelais
17.
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.
Francois Rabelais
18.
It is my feeling that Time ripens all things; with Time all things are revealed; Time is the father of truth.
Francois Rabelais
19.
The scent of wine, oh how much more agreeable, laughing, praying, celestial and delicious it is than that of oil!
Francois Rabelais
20.
I drink no more than a sponge.
Francois Rabelais
21.
I never sleep comfortably except when I am at sermon or when I pray to God.
Francois Rabelais
22.
A war undertaken without sufficient monies has but a wisp of force. Coins are the very sinews of battles.
Francois Rabelais
23.
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.
Francois Rabelais
24.
There is no truer cause of unhappiness amongst men than, where naturally expecting charity and benevolence, they receive harm and vexation.
Francois Rabelais
25.
Languages exist by arbitrary institutions and conventions among peoples; words, as the dialecticians tell us, do not signify naturally, but at our pleasure.
Francois Rabelais
26.
Debts and lies are generally mixed together.
Francois Rabelais
27.
Remove idleness from the world and soon the arts of Cupid would perish.
Francois Rabelais
28.
No clock is more regular than the belly.
Francois Rabelais
29.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying, For laughter makes men human, and courageous.
Francois Rabelais
30.
Half the world does not know how the other half lives.
Francois Rabelais
31.
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.
Francois Rabelais
32.
Machination is worth more than force.
Francois Rabelais
33.
I drink eternally. For me it is an eternity of drinking, and a drinking up of eternity.
Francois Rabelais
34.
Everything comes in time to those who can wait.
Francois Rabelais
35.
So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.
Francois Rabelais
36.
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.
Francois Rabelais
37.
A good intention does not mean honor.
[Fr., A bon entendeur ne faut qu'un parole.]
Francois Rabelais
38.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Francois Rabelais
39.
Friends, you will notice that in this world there are many more ballocks than men. Remember this.
Francois Rabelais
40.
It's a shame to be called "educated" those who do not study the ancient Greek writers.
Francois Rabelais
41.
Bring down the curtain, the farce is over
Francois Rabelais
42.
Frugality is for the vulgar.
Francois Rabelais
43.
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.
Francois Rabelais
44.
I am going to seek a great purpose, draw the curtain, the farce is played.
Francois Rabelais
45.
I build only living stones--men.
Francois Rabelais
46.
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.
Francois Rabelais
47.
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.]
Francois Rabelais
48.
To good and true love, fear is forever affixed.
Francois Rabelais
49.
There are more old drunkards than old physicians.
Francois Rabelais
50.
How do you know antiquity was foolish? How do you know the present is wise? Who made it foolish? Who made it wise?
Francois Rabelais