Francois Rabelais Quotes

Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.

Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you. I'd rather write about laughing than crying, For laughter makes men human, and courageous.

Science without conscience is the soul's perdition.

Tell the truth and shame the devil.

the wise may be instructed by a fool

I have nothing, I owe a great deal, and the rest I leave to the poor.

a child is a fire to be lit, not a vase to be filled

If the skies fall, one may hope to catch larks.

We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us

Bring down the curtain, the farce is played out.

..to laugh is proper to the man.

Should a writer have a social purpose? Any honest writer is bound to become a critic of the society he lives in, and sometimes, like Mark Twain or Kurt Vonnegut or Leo Tolstoy or Francois Rabelais, a very harsh critic indeed. The others are sycophants, courtiers, servitors, entertainers. Shakespeare was a sychophant; however, he was and is also a very good poet, and so we continue to read him.

Подтирался я еще курицей, петухом, цыпленком, телячьей шкурой, зайцем, голубем, бакланом, адвокатским мешком, капюшоном, чепцом, чучелом птицы. В заключение, однако ж, я должен сказать следующее: лучшая в мире подтирка - это пушистый гусенок, уверяю вас, - только когда вы просовываете его себе между ног, то держите его за голову. Вашему отверстию в это время бывает необыкновенно приятно, во-первых, потому, что пух у гусенка нежный, а во-вторых, потому, что сам гусенок тепленький, и это тепло через задний проход и кишечник без труда проникает в область сердца и мозга. И напрасно вы думаете, будто всем своим блаженством в Елисейских полях герои и полубоги обязаны асфоделям, амброзии и нектару, как тут у нас болтают старухи. По-моему, все дело в том, что они подтираются гусятами, и таково мнение ученейшего Иоанна Скотта.

We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us.” -Francois Rabelais

Oh! The melancholy, the fantastic melancholy of that invention that freezes sounds, just as Francois Rabelais had so clownishly imagined! Was it necessary that, no sooner born, the most seductive of discoveries, which fixes in life life's most ephemeral voices, should enter into the service of death?

I wonder at the certainty of these women. How did they acquire beliefs so definite that they needed to share them with others in print? The message I like best, the message I write hugely over seven pages in my notebook, the message I want to tattoo, no etch, no brand onto my left arm is next to Louise Loves Conor. It says it's a quote by Francois Rabelais by a John Green. “I go to seek a Great Perhaps." I would like to write this quote all over the city myself, but then I would be ripping off Rabelais, Green, and the toilet scrawler. I close my notebook and open the cubicle door. I could do worse than live by toilet wisdom.

I wonder at the certainty of these women. How did they acquire beliefs so definite that they needed to share them with others in print? The message I like best, the message I write hugely over seven pages in my notebook, the message I want to tattoo, no etch, no brand onto my left arm is next to Louise Loves Conor. It says it's a quote by Francois Rabelais by a John Green. “I go to seek a Great Perhaps." I would like to write this quote all over the city myself, but then I would be ripping off Rabelais, Green, and the toilet scrawler. I close my notebook and open the cubicle door. I could do worse than live by toilet door wisdom.