To eat is to appropriate by destruction.

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

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

‘Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.

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

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

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

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for their own interest.

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

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

To safeguard one’s health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.

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

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