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François Rabelais
90 quotes
“Je m'en vais chercher un grand peut-être; tirez le rideau, la farce est jouée.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Last words, according to the Life of Rabelais (1694) by Peter Anthony Motteux.
“Je n'ai rien vaillant; je dois beaucoup; je donne le reste aux pauvres.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: His one line will, as quoted in Arthur Machen : A Short Account of His Life and Work (1964) by Aidan Reynolds and William E. Charlton, p. 186
“Readers, friends, if you turn these pages Put your prejudice aside, For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous, Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious. Not that I sit here glowing with pride For my book: all you'll find is laughter: That's all the glory my heart is after, Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you. I'd rather write about laughing than crying, For laughter makes men human, and courageous.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pour ce que rire est le propre de l'homme.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Revenons à nos moutons”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 1; a proverb taken from the French farce of "Pierre Patelin," edition of 1762, p. 90
“I drink no more than a sponge.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston. But the thirst goes away with drinking.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Natura abhorret vacuum.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As soon as he was born, he cried not as other babes use to do, Miez, miez, miez, miez, but with a high, sturdy, and big voice shouted about, Some drink, some drink, some drink, as inviting all the world to drink with him. The noise hereof was so extremely great, that it was heard in both the countries at once of Beauce and Bibarois. I doubt me, that you do not thoroughly believe the truth of this strange nativity. Though you believe it not, I care not much: but an honest man, and of good judgment, believeth still what is told him, and that which he finds written.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thought the moon was made of green cheese.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“He always looked a given horse in the mouth.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“By robbing Peter he paid Paul, … and hoped to catch larks if ever the heavens should fall.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“He did not care a button for it.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“How well I feathered my nest.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“He laid him squat as a flounder.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Send them home as merry as crickets.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“A good crier of green sauce.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Then I began to think that it is very true which is commonly said, that the one half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Les heures sont faictez pour l'homme, et non l'homme pour les heures.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Comrades, I hear the track and beating of the enemy's horse-feet, and withal perceive that some of them come in a troop and full body against us. Let us rally and close here, then set forward in order, and by this means we shall be able to receive their charge to their loss and our honour.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Et guerre faicte sans bonne provision d'argent, n'a qu'un souspirail de vigueur. Les nerfz des batailles sont les pecunes.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Corn is the sinews of war.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Our forefathers and ancestors of all times have been of this nature and disposition, that, upon the winning of a battle, they have chosen rather, for a sign and memorial of their triumphs and victories, to erect trophies and monuments in the hearts of the vanquished by clemency than by architecture in the lands which they had conquered. For they did hold in greater estimation the lively remembrance of men purchased by liberality than the dumb inscription of arches, pillars, and pyramids, subject to the injury of storms and tempests, and to the envy of everyone.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In end, this free goodwill and simple meaning of the Canarians wrought such tenderness in my father's heart that he could not abstain from shedding tears, and wept most profusely; then, by choice words very congruously adapted, strove in what he could to diminish the estimation of the good offices which he had done them, saying, that any courtesy he had conferred upon them was not worth a rush, and what favour soever he had showed them he was bound to do it.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it. Being unwilling therefore any way to degenerate from the hereditary mildness and clemency of my parents, I do now forgive you, deliver you from all fines and imprisonments, fully release you, set you at liberty, and every way make you as frank and free as ever you were before.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was left only the monk to provide for, whom Gargantua would have made Abbot of Seville, but he refused it. He would have given him the Abbey of Bourgueil, or of Sanct Florent, which was better, or both, if it pleased him ; but the monk gave him a very peremptory answer, that he would never take upon him the charge nor government of monks. For how shall I be able, said he, to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself: If you think I have done you, or may hereafter do you any acceptable service, give me leave to found an abbey after my own mind and fancy.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here enter not vile bigots, hypocrites, Externally devoted apes, base snites, Puffed-up, wry-necked beasts, worse than the Huns, Or Ostrogoths, forerunners of baboons: Cursed snakes, dissembled varlets, seeming sancts, Slipshod caffards, beggars pretending wants, Fat chuffcats, smell-feast knockers, doltish gulls, Out-strouting cluster-fists, contentious bulls, Fomenters of divisions and debates, Elsewhere, not here, make sale of your deceits.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here enter not attorneys, barristers, Nor bridle-champing law-practitioners: Clerks, commissaries, scribes, nor pharisees, Wilful disturbers of the people's ease: Judges, destroyers, with an unjust breath, Of honest men, like dogs, even unto death. Your salary is at the gibbet-foot: Go drink there! for we do not here fly out On those excessive courses, which may draw A waiting on your courts by suits in law.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here enter you, pure, honest, faithful, true Expounders of the Scriptures old and new. Whose glosses do not blind our reason, but Make it to see the clearer, and who shut Its passages from hatred, avarice, Pride, factions, covenants, and all sort of vice. Come, settle here a charitable faith, Which neighbourly affection nourisheth. And whose light chaseth all corrupters hence, Of the blest word, from the aforesaid sense.The holy sacred Word, May it always afford T' us all in common, Both man and woman, A spiritual shield and sword, The holy sacred Word.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Alluring, courtly, comely, fine, complete, Wise, personable, ravishing, and sweet, Come joys enjoy. The Lord celestial Hath given enough wherewith to please us all.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good : they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it, and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing ; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule, and strictest tie of their order, there was but this one clause to be observed,”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“En toutes compagnies il y a plus de folz que de sages, et la plus grande partie surmonte tousjours la meilleure.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Subject to a kind of disease, which at that time they called lack of money.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Loupgarou was come with all his giants, who, seeing Pantagruel in a manner alone, was carried away with temerity and presumption, for hopes that he had to kill the good man. Whereupon he said to his companions the giants, You wenchers of the low country, by Mahoom, if any of you undertake to fight against these men here, I will put you cruelly to death. It is my will, that you let me fight single. In the meantime you shall have good sport to look upon us.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This flea which I have in mine ear.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“You have there hit the nail on the head.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“I have already related to you great and admirable things; but, if you might be induced to adventure upon the hazard of believing some other divinity of this sacred Pantagruelion, I very willingly would tell it you. Believe it, if you will, or otherwise, believe it not, I care not which of them you do, they are both alike to me. It shall be sufficient for my purpose to have told you the truth, and the truth I will tell you.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If in your soil it takes, to heaven A thousand thousand thanks be given; And say with France, it goodly goes, Where the Pantagruelion grows.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Certaine gayeté d'esprit conficte en mespris des choses fortuites.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A son [Timon le Misanthrope] exemple ie denonce à ces calumniateurs diaboliques, que tous ayent à se pendre dedans le dernier chanteau de ceste lune. Ie les fourniray de licolz.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) first seen 1548 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prologue of the 1548 "old" edition
“Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“I'll go his halves.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“The Devil was sick, — the Devil a monk would be; The Devil was well, — the devil a monk was he.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Do not believe what I tell you here any more than if it were some tale of a tub.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“I would have you call to mind the strength of the ancient giants, that undertook to lay the high mountain Pelion on the top of Ossa, and set among those the shady Olympus.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“Which was performed to a T.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“He that has patience may compass anything.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“We will take the good-will for the deed.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais
“You are Christians of the best edition, all picked and culled.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Francis Rabelais