Quotes from book
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, which tells of the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel . The text is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein, and features much crudity, scatological humor, and violence .
“Come, pluck up a good heart; speak the truth and shame the devil.”
Author's prologue.
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564)
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564)
Context: Readers, friends, if you turn these pages
Put your prejudice aside,
For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous,
Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious.
Not that I sit here glowing with pride
For my book: all you'll find is laughter:
That's all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.
“We have here other fish to fry.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 12.
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 50 : Gargantua's speech to the vanquished -->
“It is enough to fright you out of your seven senses.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 15.
“He always looked a given horse in the mouth.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 11.
“So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Pantagruel (1532), Chapter 29 : How Pantagruel discomfited the three hundred Giants armed with free-stone, and Loupgarou their Captain (Loup-garou is the french term for werewolf).
“Panurge had no sooner heard this, but he was upon the high-rope.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 18.
“He freshly and cheerfully asked him how a man should kill time.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 62.
“Others made a virtue of necessity.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 22.
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 50 : Gargantua's speech to the vanquished.
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 41.
“It is meat, drink, and cloth to us.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 7.
“And so on to the end of the chapter.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 10.
“Nothing is so dear and precious as time.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 5.
“A certain jollity of mind, pickled in the scorn of fortune.”
Certaine gayeté d'esprit conficte en mespris des choses fortuites.
Prologue de l'autheur.
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552)
“Needs must when the Devil drives.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 57.
Pour ce que rire est le propre de l'homme.
Rabelais to the Reader (prefatory note on leading page).
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534)
