So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.
We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us.
It is better to write of laughter than of tears, for laughter is the property of man.
Everything comes in time to those who can wait.
A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.
May the fire of St. Anthony fly up thy fundament.
The scent of wine, oh how much more agreeable, laughing, praying, celestial and delicious it is than that of oil!
To laugh is proper to the man.
When I drink, I think; and when I think, I drink.
For he who can wait, everything comes in time.
Tell the truth and shame the devil.
It is my feeling that Time ripens all things; with Time all things are revealed; Time is the father of truth.
When undertaking marriage, everyone must be the judge of his own thoughts, and take counsel from himself.
A bellyful is a bellyful.
I go to seek a Great Perhaps.
I have known many who could not when they would, for they had not done it when they could.
In their rules there was only one clause: Do what you will.
I have nothing, I owe a great deal, and the rest I leave to the poor.
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.
How can I govern others, who can't even govern myself?
He would flay the fox, say the ape's paternoster, return to his sheep, and turn the hogs to the hay. He would beat the dogs before the lion, put the plough before the oxen, and claw where it did not itch.
Time ripens all things; with time all things are revealed; time is the father of truth.
Science without conscience is the soul's perdition.
Half the world does not know how the other half lives.
Frugality is for the vulgar.
Remove idleness from the world and soon the arts of Cupid would perish.
If the skies fall, one may hope to catch larks.
I drink no more than a sponge.
How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?
Thirst, for who in the time of innocence would have drunk without being athirst? Nay, sir, it was drinking; for privatio praesupponit habitum.
Believe me, 'tis a godlike thing to lend; to owe is a heroic virtue.
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.
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.
Baste! enough! I sup, I wet, I humect, I moisten my gullet, I drink, and all for fear of dying. Drink always and you shall never die.
Debts and lies are generally mixed together.
From the gut comes the strut, and where hunger reigns, strength abstains.
How do you know antiquity was foolish? How do you know the present is wise? Who made it foolish? Who made it wise?
A mother-in-law dies only when another devil is needed in hell.
One falls to the ground in trying to sit on two stools.
I won't undertake war until I have tried all the arts and means of peace.
I have a remedy against thirst, quite contrary to that which is good against the biting of a mad dog. Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you; drink always before the thirst, and it will never come upon you.
Now my innocence begins to weigh me down.
I say and maintain, that of all torcheculs, arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches, there is none in the world comparable to the neck of a goose ...
Ignorance is the mother of all evils.
No clock is more regular than the belly.
The great reproach always brought against Rabelais is not the want of reserve of his language merely, but his occasional studied coarseness, which is enough to spoil his whole work, and which lowers its value.
