The decline of the aperitif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time.

Whatsoever was the father of a disease, an ill diet was the mother.

For, say they, when cruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.

To eat is to appropriate by destruction.

A great step toward independence is a good-humored stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god.

Why is not a rat as good as a rabbit? Why should men eat shrimps and neglect cockroaches?

Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feasts. 

He makes his cook his merit, and the world visits his dinners and not him.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.