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Quotes from Gargantua and Pantagruel — François Rabelais

d. 1553 France

← All quotes by François Rabelais

80 quotes

What is got over the Devil's back is spent under the belly.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

It is enough to fright you out of your seven senses.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

I believe he would make three bites of a cherry.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

He that has patience may compass anything.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

You have there hit the nail on the head.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

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.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

War begun without good provision of money beforehand for going through with it is but as a breathing of strength and blast that will quickly pass away. Coin is the sinews of war.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Alluring, courtly, comely, fine, complete,
Wise, personable, ravishing, and sweet,
Come joys enjoy. The Lord celestial
Hath given enough wherewith to please us all.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Out-strouting cluster-fists, contentious bulls,
Fomenters of divisions and debates,
Elsewhere, not here, make sale of your deceits.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

A certain jollity of mind, pickled in the scorn of fortune.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Thought I to myself, we shall never come off scot-free.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

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.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

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.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

There was left only the monk to provide for, whom Gargantua would have made Abbot of Seville, but he refused it.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

By robbing Peter he paid Paul, … and hoped to catch larks if ever the heavens should fall.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Comrades and fellow-soldiers, we have here met with an encounter, and they are ten times in number more than we. Shall we charge them or no?

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Following his example, I encourage all these diabolical calumniators to go hang themselves before the last moon's quarter is done. I will supply the rope.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Thought the moon was made of green cheese.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

It is meat, drink, and cloth to us.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: François Rabelais (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.