“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.”

Ignorance is the mother of all evils.

A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.

How can I govern others, who can’t even govern myself?

I drink eternally. For me it is an eternity of drinking, and a drinking up of eternity.

Giving words is an act of lovers.

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.

A certain jollity of mind, pickled in the scorn of fortune.

In their rules there was only one clause: Do what you will.

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.

Strike the iron whilst it is hot.

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.

When undertaking marriage, everyone must be the judge of his own thoughts, and take counsel from himself.

I drink for the thirst to come.

A man of good sense always believes what he is told, and what he finds written down.

Never did a great man hate good wine.

A good intention does not mean honor.