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.

Is it only the mouth and belly which are injured by hunger and thirst? Men’s minds are also injured by them.

A woman should never be seen eating or drinking unless it be lobster salad and champagne, the only truly feminine and becoming viands.

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

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

’Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.

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

What is food to one is to others bitter poison.

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

No lyric poems live long or please many people which are written by drinkers of water.

To eat is to appropriate by destruction.

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

Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.