Gluttony kills more than the sword.
—Common Proverb
There is such a thing as food and such a thing as poison. But the damage done by those who pass off poison as food is far less than that done by those who generation after generation convince people that food is poison.
—Paul Goodman (1911–72) American Novelist, Essayist
We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
You needn’t tell me that a man who doesn’t love oysters and asparagus and good wines has got a soul, or a stomach either. He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
We are always giving foreign names to very native things. If there is a thing that reeks of the glorious tradition of the old English tavern, it is toasted cheese. But for some wild reason we call it Welsh rarebit. I believe that what we call Irish stew might more properly be called English stew, and that it is not particularly familiar in Ireland.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Do not dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
—English Proverb
My body is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t think about it, I just have it.
—Arnold Schwarzenegger (b.1947) Austrian-American Athlete, Actor, Politician
A good meal ought to begin with hunger.
—French Proverb
Most of us are either too thin to enjoy eating, or too fat to enjoy walking.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
—Turkish Proverb
Hunger is not only the best cook, but also the best physician.
—Unknown
Hors d’oeuvres have always a pathetic interest for me; they remind me of one’s childhood that one goes through wondering what the next course is going to be like—and during the rest of the menu one wishes one had eaten more of the hors d’oeuvres.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
Let the stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
When the Somalians were merely another hungry third world people, we sent them guns. Now that they are falling down dead from starvation, we send them troops. Some may see in this a tidy metaphor for the entire relationship between north and south. But it would make a whole lot more sense nutritionally—as well as providing infinitely more vivid viewing—if the Somalians could be persuaded to eat the troops.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–2022) American Social Critic, Essayist
For much of the female half of the world, food is the first signal of our inferiority. It lets us know that our own families may consider female bodies to be less deserving, less needy, less valuable.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Social Activist, Political Activist
A fat paunch never bred a subtle mind.
—Anonymous
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
The more you eat, the less flavor; the less you eat, the more flavor.
—Chinese Proverb
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.
—Sophia Loren (b.1934) Italian Actor
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a harmony of aspiration.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
Put a knife to thy throat, if you’re a man given to appetite.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?
—Joyce Carol Oates (b.1938) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Playwright, Poet, Literary Critic
It is the mark of a mean, vulgar and ignoble spirit to dwell on the thought of food before meal times or worse to dwell on it afterwards, to discuss it and wallow in the remembered pleasures of every mouthful. Those whose minds dwell before dinner on the spit, and after on the dishes, are fit only to be scullions.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly: feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Appetite comes with eating; the more one has, the more one would have.
—French Proverb
The most dangerous food to eat is a wedding cake.
—Common Proverb
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