Mithriades, by frequently drinking poison, rendered it impossible for any poison to hurt him. You, Cinna, by always dining on next to nothing, have taken due precaution against ever perishing from hunger.
Annius has some two hundred tables, and
servants for every table. Dishes run hither and
thither, and plates fly about. Such entertainments as these keep to yourselves, ye pompous;
I am ill pleased with a supper that walks.
You praise, in three hundred verses, Sabellus,
the baths of Ponticus, who gives such excellent
dinners. You wish to dine, Sabellus, not to
bathe.
As long as I have fat turtle-doves, a fig for your
lettuce, my friend, and you may keep your shellfish to yourself. I have no wish to waste my
appetite.
See, how the liver is swollen larger than a fat
goose! In amazement you will exclaim: Where
could this possibly grow?
Whether woodcock or partridge, what does it
signify, if the taste is the same? But the partridge
is dearer, and therefore thought preferable.
However great the dish that holds the turbot,
the turbot is still greater than the dish.
I am a shell-fish just come from being saturated
with the waters of the Lucrine lake, near Bake;
but now I luxuriously thirst for noble pickle.
If my opinion is of any worth, the fieldfare is
the greatest delicacy among birds, the hare
among quadrupeds.
Man shall not live by bread alone.
Take no thought for your life, what ye shall
eat, or what ye shall drink.
O hour, of all hours, the most bless'd upon earth,
The blessed hour of our dinners!
We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
He may live without books,—what is knowledge
but grieving?
He may live without hope,—what is hope but
deceiving?
He may live without love,—what is passion but
pining?
But where is the man that can live without
dining?
They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy.
Le veritable Amphitryon
Est l'Amphitryon ou l'on dine.
The genuine Amphitryon is the Amphitryon with whom we dine.
Tenez bonne table et soignez les femmes.
Keep a good table and attend to the ladies.
What baron or squire
Or knight of the shire
Lives half so well as a holy friar.
Gula plures occidit quam gladius, estque fomes
omnium malorum.
Gluttony kills more than the sword, and is the kindler of all evils.
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
