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You Have No Obligation Under The Sun Other Than To Discover Your Real Needs, To Fulfill Them, And To Rejoice In Doing So.

-Francois Rabelais

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You Have No Obligation

Francois Rabelais

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You Have No Obligation Under The Sun Other Than To Discover Your Real Needs, To Fulfill Them, And To Rejoice In Doing So.

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A Child Is Not A Vase To Be Filled, But A Fire To Be Lit.

If You Say To Me: "master, It Would Seem That You Weren't Too Terribly Wise To Have Written These Bits Of Nonsense And Pleasant Mockeries," I Respond That You Are Hardly More So In Finding Amusement In Reading Them.

For God, Nothing Is Impossible. And, If He Wanted, In The Future Women Would Give Birth From Their Ears.

From The Gut Comes The Strut, And Where Hunger Reigns, Strength Abstains.

One Falls To The Ground In Trying To Sit On Two Stools.

I Am Going To Seek A Great Purpose, Draw The Curtain, The Farce Is Played.

Ha! For A Divine And Lordly Manor, There Is Nothing Like Solid Ground.

A Habit Does Not A Monk Make.

All Things Have Their Ends And Cycles. And When They Have Reached Their Highest Point, They Are In Their Lowest Ruin, For They Cannot Last For Long In Such A State. Such Is The End For Those Who Cannot Moderate Their Fortune And Prosperity With Reason And Temperance.

Ignorance Is The Mother Of All Evils.

It Is Folly To Put The Plough In Front Of The Oxen.

I Never Sleep Comfortably Except When I Am At Sermon Or When I Pray To God.

No Clock Is More Regular Than The Belly.

The Lord Forbid That I Should Be Out Of Debt, As If Indeed I Could Not Be Trusted.

Languages Exist By Arbitrary Institutions And Conventions Among Peoples; Words, As The Dialecticians Tell Us, Do Not Signify Naturally, But At Our Pleasure.

Let Every One Be Fully Convinced In His Own Mind.

How Can I Govern Others, Who Can't Even Govern Myself?

I Never Sleep In Comfort Save When I Am Hearing A Sermon Or Praying To God.

Bottle, Whose Mysterious Deep Do's Ten Thousand Secrets Keep, With Attentive Ear I Wait; Ease My Mind, And Speak My Fate.

I Am Going To Seek A Grand Perhaps.

Hungry Bellies Have No Cars.

An Old Monkey Never Makes A Pretty Face.

Thought I To Myself, We Shall Never Come Off Scot-free.

I Place No Hope In My Strength, Nor In My Works: But All My Confidence Is In God My Protector, Who Never Abandons Those Who Have Put All Their Hope And Thought In Him.

Machination Is Worth More Than Force.

There Are More Old Drunkards Than Old Physicians.

Men That Are Free, Well-born, Well-bred, And Conversant In Honest Companies, Have Naturally An Instinct And Spur That Prompteth Them Unto Virtuous Actions, And Withdraws Them From Vice, Which Is Called Honour. 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, To Shake Off And Break That Bond Of Servitude, Wherein They Are So Tyrannously Enslaved; For It Is Agreeable With The Nature Of Man To Long After Things Forbidden, And To Desire What Is Denied Us.

When Undertaking Marriage, Everyone Must Be The Judge Of His Own Thoughts, And Take Counsel From Himself.

Between Two Stools One Sits On The Ground.

I Drink For The Thirst To Come.

Wait A Second While I Take A Swig Off This Bottle: It's My True And Only Helicon, My Caballine Fount, My Sole Enthusiasm. Here, Drinking, I Deliberate, I Reason, I Resolve And Conclude. After The Epilogue I Laugh, I Write, I Compose, I Drink. Ennius Drinking Would Write, Writing Would Drink.

All's Well In The End, If You've Only The Patience To Wait.

Against Fortune The Carter Cracks His Whip In Vain. [fr., Centre Fortune, La Diverse Un Chartier Rompit Nazardes Son Fouet.]

When I Drink, I Think; And When I Think, I Drink.

A Certain Jollity Of Mind, Pickled In The Scorn Of Fortune.

I Do Not Drink More Than A Sponge.

I Drink No More Than A Sponge.

Plain As A Nose In A Man's Face.

The Farce Is Finished. I Go To Seek A Vast Perhaps.

Gestures, In Love, Are Incomparably More Attractive, Effective And Valuable Than Words.

Strike The Iron Whilst It Is Hot.

Science Without Conscience Is The Soul's Perdition.

In This Mortal Life, Nothing Is Blessed Throughout.

The Probity That Scintillizes In The Superfices Of Your Persons Informs My Ratiocinating Faculty, In A Most Stupendous Manner, Of The Radiant Virtues Latent Within The Precious Caskets And Ventricles Of Your Minds.

Keep Running After A Dog And He Will Never Bite You.

I'd Rather Write About Laughing Than Crying, For Laughter Makes Men Human, And Courageous.

I Won't Undertake War Until I Have Tried All The Arts And Means Of Peace.

The Scent Of Wine, Oh How Much More Agreeable, Laughing, Praying, Celestial And Delicious It Is Than That Of Oil!

I Know Of A Charm By Way Of A Prayer That Will Preserve A Man From The Violence Of Guns And All Manner Of Fire-weapons And Engines But It Will Do Me No Good Because I Do Not Believe It

Not Everyone Is A Debtor Who Wishes To Be; Not Everyone Who Wishes Makes Creditors.

The Age Was Still Dark And Reeked Of The Havoc And Misfortunes Of The Goths Who Had Put All Good Literature To Destruction. But, By God's Goodness, In My Time Light And Dignity Were Returned To Letters, And I See There Such Improvement That Today I Would Have Great Difficulty Being Admitted To The Most Elementary Classes--i, Who In My Time Was Reputed To Be (and Not Wrongly) To Be The Most Knowledgeable Person Of The Century.

Debts And Lies Are Generally Mixed Together. [fr., Debtes Et Mensonges Sont Ordinairement Ensemble Rallies.]

So Much Is A Man Worth As He Esteems Himself.

I'd Gladly Do Without A Valet. I'm Never So Well Treated As When I'm Without A Valet.

Time, Which Wears Down And Diminishes All Things, Augments And Increases Good Deeds, Because A Good Turn Liberally Offered To A Reasonable Man Grows Continually Through Noble Thought And Memory.

Oh How Unhappy Is The Prince Served By Such Men Who Are So Easily Corrupted.

Oh Thrice And Four Times Happy... Those Who Plant Cabbages.

Pantagruel Was Telling Me That He Believed The Queen Had Given The Symbolic Word Used Among Her Subjects To Denote Sovereign Good Cheer, When She Said To Her Tabachins, A Panacea.

It Is My Feeling That Time Ripens All Things; With Time All Things Are Revealed; Time Is The Father Of Truth.

Half The World Does Not Know How The Other Half Lives.

I Urge You To Spend Your Youth Profitably In Study And Virtue.... In Brief, Let Me See In You An Abyss Of Knowledge.

He That Has Patience May Compass Anything.

Having Patience

Believe Me, 'tis A Godlike Thing To Lend; To Owe Is A Heroic Virtue.

One Inch Of Joy Surmounts Of Grief A Span, Because To Laugh Is Proper To The Man.

Gargantua, At The Age Of Four Hundred Four Score And Forty- Four Years Begat His Son Pantagruel, From His Wife, Named Badebec, Daughter Of The King Of The Amaurotes In Utopia, Who Died In Child-birth: Because He Was Marvelously Huge And So Heavy That He Could Not Come To Light Without Suffocating His Mother.

You Have No Obligation Under The Sun Other Than To Discover Your Real Needs, To Fulfill Them, And To Rejoice In Doing So.

Fate Leads The Willing, And Th' Unwilling Draws.

Appetite Comes With Eating.

How Comes It That You Curse, Frere Jean? It's Only, Said The Monk, In Order To Embellish My Language. They Are The Colors Of Ciceronian Rhetoric.

The Dress Does Not Make The Monk. [fr., L'habit Ne Fait Le Moine.]

The Right Moment Wears A Full Head Of Hair: When It Has Been Missed, You Can't Get It Back; It's Bald In The Back Of The Head And Never Turns Around.

It's A Shame To Be Called "educated" Those Who Do Not Study The Ancient Greek Writers.

Always Open All Gates And Roads To Your Enemies, And Rather Make For Them A Bridge Of Silver, To Get Rid Of Them. [fr., Ouvrez Toujours A Vos Ennemis Toutes Les Portes Et Chemin, Et Plutot Leur Faites Un Pont D'argent, Afin De Les Renvoyer.]

There Is No Truer Cause Of Unhappiness Amongst Men Than, Where Naturally Expecting Charity And Benevolence, They Receive Harm And Vexation.

We Always Long For The Forbidden Things, And Desire What Is Denied Us.

Row On [whatever Happens]. [lat., Vogue La Galere.]

Whatever Happens

I've Often Heard It Said, As The Common Proverb Goes, That A Fool Can Teach A Wise Man Well.

Petite Ville, Grand Renom. Small Town, Great Renown.

Because Just As Arms Have No Force Outside If There Is No Counsel Within A House, Study Is Vain And Counsel Useless That Is Not Put To Virtuous Effect When The Time Calls.

A War Undertaken Without Sufficient Monies Has But A Wisp Of Force. Coins Are The Very Sinews Of Battles.

In Their Rules There Was Only One Clause: Do What You Will.

Don't Limp In Front Of The Lame.

When My Soul Leaves This Human Dwelling, I Will Not Consider Myself To Have Completely Died, But To Pass From One State To Another, Given That, In You And By You, I Remain In My Visible Image In This World.

The Deed Will Be Accomplished With The Least Amount Of Bloodshed Possible, And, If Possible ..., We'll Save All The Souls And Send Them Happily Off To Their Abode.

Bring Down The Curtain, The Farce Is Over

Remove Idleness From The World And Soon The Arts Of Cupid Would Perish.

Time, Which Gnaws And Diminisheth All Things Else, Augments And Increaseth Benefits; Because A Noble Action Of Liberality, Done To A Man Of Reason, Doth Grow Continually By His Generous Thinking Of It And Remembering It.

How Shall I Be Able To Rule Over Others, That Have Not Full Power And Command Of Myself?

Indeed, Said The Monk, A Mass, A Matins, And Vespers Well Rung Are Half-said.

Do Not Limp Before The Lame. [old Fr., Ne Clochez Pas Devant Les Boyteus.]

Nature Made The Day For Exercise, Work And Seeing To One's Business; And ... It Provides Us With A Candle, Which Is To Say The Bright And Joyous Light Of The Sun.

To Laugh Is Proper To Man.

Appetite Comes With Eating.....but Thirst Goes Away With Drinking.

Nature Abhors A Vacuum.

We Will Take The Good-will For The Deed.

Misery Is The Company Of Lawsuits.

If The Skies Fall, One May Hope To Catch Larks.

Such Is The Nature And Make-up Of The French That They Are Only Good At The Start. Then They Are Worse Than Devils, But, Given Time, They're Less Than Women.

I Owe Much; I Have Nothing; The Rest I Leave To The Poor.

Famous Last Words

If The Head Is Lost, All That Perishes Is The Individual; If The Balls Are Lost, All Of Human Nature Perishes.

Science Sans Conscience N' Est Que Le Ruine De L'âme. Knowledge Without Conscience Is But The Ruine Of The Soule.

A Bellyful Is A Bellyful.

A Man Of Good Sense Always Believes What He Is Told, And What He Finds Written Down.

I Have Already Related To You Great And Admirable Things; But, If You Might Be Induced To Adventure Upon The Hazard Of Believing Some Other Divinity Of This Sacred Pantagruelion, I Very Willingly Would Tell It You. Believe It, If You Will, Or Otherwise, Believe It Not, I Care Not Which Of Them You Do, They Are Both Alike To Me. It Shall Be Sufficient For My Purpose To Have Told You The Truth, And The Truth I Will Tell You.

If You Wish To Be Good "pantagruelists" (which Is To Say, Live In Peace, Joy, Health, And Always Dining Well), Never Put Too Much Faith In People Who Look Out Through A Hole.

It Is The Custom On Africa To Always Produce New And Monstrous Things. [fr., Afrique Est Coustumiere Toujours Choses Produire Nouvelles Et Monstrueuses.]

Parisians Are So Besotted, So Silly And So Naturally Inept That A Street Player, A Seller Of Indulgences, A Mule With Its Cymbals,a Fiddler In The Middle Of A Crossroads, Will Draw More People Than Would A Good Evangelist Preacher.

Frugality Is For The Vulgar.

It Is Quite A Common And Vulgar Thing Among Humans To Understand, Foresee, Know And Predict The Troubles Of Others. But Oh What A Rare Thing It Is To Predict, Know, Foresee And Understand One's Own Troubles.

I Drink Eternally. For Me It Is An Eternity Of Drinking, And A Drinking Up Of Eternity.

Wisdom Entereth Not Into A Malicious Mind.

The Remedy For Thirst? It Is The Opposite Of The One For A Dog Bite: Run Always After A Dog, He'll Never Bite You; Drink Always Before Thirst, And It Will Never Overtake You.

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.

Never Did A Great Man Hate Good Wine.

Can There Be Any Greater Dotage In The World Than For One To Guide And Direct His Courses By The Sound Of A Bell, And Not By His Own Judgment.

The Devil Was Sick - The Devil A Monk Would Be, The Devil Was Well The Devil A Monk Was He

Everything Comes In Time To Those Who Can Wait.

The Appetite Grows With Eating.

It Is Said, Proverbially, That Happy Is The Doctor Who Is Called In When The Disease Is On Its Way Out.

Hungry Bellies Have No Ears. [fr., La Ventre Affame N'point D'oreilles.]

I Recognize In [my Readers] A Specific Form And Individual Property, Which Our Predecessors Called Pantagruelism, By Means Of Which They Never Take Anything The Wrong Way That They Know To Stem From Good, Honest And Loyal Hearts.

A Good Intention Does Not Mean Honor. [fr., A Bon Entendeur Ne Faut Qu'un Parole.]

Tell The Truth And Shame The Devil.

Telling The Truth

If You Understand Why A Monkey In A Family Is Always Mocked And Harassed, You Understand Why Monks Are Rejected By All--both Old And Young.

Do You Know What Agelisas Said, When He Was Asked Why The Great City Of Lacedomonie Was Not Girded With Walls? Because, Pointing Out The Inhabitants And Citizens Of The City, So Expert In Military Discipline And So Strong And Well Armed: "here," He Said, "are The Walls Of The City," Meaning That There Is No Wall But Of Bones, And That Towns And Cities Can Have No More Secure Nor Stronger Wall Than The Virtue Of Their Citizens And Inhabitants.

Few And Signally Blessed Are Those Whom Jupiter Has Destined To Be Cabbage-planters. For They've Always One Foot On The Ground Andthe Other Not Far From It. Anyone Is Welcome To Argue About Felicity And Supreme Happiness. But The Man Who Plants Cabbages I Now Positively Declare To Be The Happiest Of Mortals.

Debts And Lies Are Generally Mixed Together.

I Build Only Living Stones--men.

Of A Young Hermit, An Old Devil. [fr., De Jeune Hermite, Vieil Diable.]

If You Want To Avoid Seeing An Idiot, Break The Mirror.

I Never Drink Without A Thirst, Either Present Or Future.

Go, All Of You Poor People, In The Name Of God The Creator, And Let Him Forever Be Your Guide. And Henceforth, Do Not Be Beguiledby These Idle And Useless Pilgrimages. See To Your Families, And Work, Each One Of You, In Your Vocation, Raise Your Children, And Live As The Good Apostle Paul Teaches You.

Death Is The Vast Perhaps.

Early Rising Is No Pleasure; Early Drinking's Just The Measure.

What Harm In Learning And Getting Knowledge Even From A Sot, A Pot, A Fool, A Mitten, Or A Slipper. [fr., Que Nuist Savoir Tousjours Et Tousjours Apprendre, Fust Ce D'un Sot, D'une Pot, D'une Que--doufle D'un Mouffe, D'un Pantoufle.]

If You Wish To Avoid Seeing A Fool, You Must First Break Your Mirror

It Is Better To Write Of Laughter Than Of Tears, For Laughter Is The Property Of Man.

Friends, You Will Notice That In This World There Are Many More Ballocks Than Men. Remember This.

According To True Military Art, One Should Never Push One's Enemy To The Point Of Despair, Because Such A State Multiplies His Strength And Increases His Courage Which Had Already Been Crushed And Failing, And Because There Is No Better Remedy For The Health Of Beaten And Overwhelmed Men Than The Absence Of All Hope.

To Good And True Love, Fear Is Forever Affixed.

So That We May Not Be Like The Athenians, Who Never Consulted Except After The Event Done. [fr., Afin Que Ne Semblons Es Athenians, Qui Ne Consultoient Jamais Sinon Apres Le Cas Faict.]

He Who Has Not An Adventure Has Not Horse Or Mule, So Says Solomon.--who Is Too Adventurous, Said Echephron,--loses Horse And Mule.

Pantagruelism Is A Certain Gaitey Of The Spirit Consisting In A Disdain For The Hazards Of Fortune.

But Where Are The Snows Of Last Year? That Was The Greatest Concern Of Villon, The Parisian Poet.

I Have Known Many Who Could Not When They Would, For They Had Not Done It When They Could.

How Do You Know Antiquity Was Foolish? How Do You Know The Present Is Wise? Who Made It Foolish? Who Made It Wise?

One Should Never Pursue The Hazards Of Fortune To Their Very Ends Andit Behooves All Adventurers To Treat Their Good Luck With Reverence, Neither Bothering Nor Upsetting It.

No Noble Man Ever Hated Good Wine.

A Crier Of Green Sauce.

There Are More Old Drunkards Than Old Physicians. [fr., Il Y A Plus De Vieux Ivrongnes Qu'il Y A De Vieux Medecins.]

The Most Christian France Is The Sole Wet-nurse To The Roman Court.

I Am Going To Seek A Great Perhaps.

Because, According To The Sage Solomon, Wisdom Does Not Enter Into A Soul That Seeks After Evil, And Knowledge Without Conscienceis The Ruin Of The Soul, It Behooves You To Serve, Love And Fear God And To Put All Your Thoughts And Hope In Him, And By Faith Founded In Charity, Be Joined To Him, Such That You Never Be Separated From Him By Sin.

There Is Nothing Holy Nor Sacred To Those Who Have Abandoned God And Reason In Order To Follow Their Perverse Desires.

If In Your Soil It Takes, To Heaven A Thousand Thousand Thanks Be Given; And Say With France, It Goodly Goes, Where The Pantagruelion Grows.

The Belly Has No Ears Nor Is It To Be Filled With Fair Words.

A Little Rain Beats Down A Big Wind. Long Drinking Bouts Break Open The Tun(der).

Giving Words [is] An Act Of Lovers.

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