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Men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompts them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honor. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue.

— François Rabelais

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More quotes by François Rabelais

Patience, if it were our sovereign lady's will, we would be as tall as you; well, we shall when she pleases.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Here enter you, pure, honest, faithful, true
Expounders of the Scriptures old and new.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Come, pluck up a good heart; speak the truth and shame the devil.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Looking as like...as one pea does like another.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

We will take the good-will for the deed.

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

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The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.

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Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

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Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: François Rabelais (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.