Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin > Quotes

“The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of the human race than the discovery of a star.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste: Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.
”
― Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“Dessert without cheese is like a beauty with only one eye”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“To invite people to dine with us is to make ourselves responsible for their well-being for as long as they are under our roofs.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste: Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy

“Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux makes you talk of them and Champagne makes you do them.”
― Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“The fate of a nation depends on the way that they eat.”
― Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“Food is all those substances which, submitted to the action of the stomach, can be assimilated or changed into life by digestion, and can thus repair the losses which the human body suffers through the act of living.”
― Brillat-Savarin

“Those who have been too long at their labor, who have drunk too long
at the cup of voluptuousness, who feel they have become temporarily
inhumane, who are tormented by their families, who find life sad and
love ephemeral......they should all eat chocolate and they will be
comforted.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“Seating themselves on the greensward, they eat while the corks fly and there is talk, laughter and merriment, and perfect freedom, for the universe is their drawing room and the sun their lamp. Besides, they have appetite, Nature's special gift, which lends to such a meal a vivacity unknown indoors, however beautiful the surroundings.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“A man who was fond of wine was offered some grapes at dessert after dinner. "Much obliged," said he, pushing the plate aside; "I am not accustomed to take my wine in pills.”
― Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste: Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy

“Alcohol carries the pleasures of the palate to their highest degree.”
― Brillat Savarin

“Animals fill themselves; man eats. The man of mind alone knows how to eat.”
― Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste

“The host took care to produce one or another of these whenever the current subjects seemed about used up, so that the conversation gathered new life and at the same time steered clear of political arguments, which are hindersome to both ingestion and digestion.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“1: There are at least six of them:     Sight, which embraces space itself, and tells us by means of light of the existence of the objects which surround us, and of their colors. Hearing, which absorbs through the air the vibrations caused by agreeably resonant or merely noisy bodies. Smell, by means of which we savor all odorous things. Taste, by which we appreciate whatever is palatable or only edible. Touch, by which we are made aware of the surfaces and the textures of objects. Finally physical desire, which draws the two sexes together so that they may procreate.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste: or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy

“the way in which meals are enjoyed is very important to the happiness of life.6”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste: or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy

“The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star.”
― Brillat-Savarin

“The world is nothing without life, and all that lives takes nourishment.”
― Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“There are neither raptures, nor ecstasies, nor transports of bliss in the pleasures of the table; but they make up in duration what they lose in intensity, and are distinguished above all by the merit of inclining us towards all the other pleasures of life, or at least of consoling us for the loss of them.”
― Brillat-Savarin

“Agreeable guests should be sought for among those who have this appearance. They receive all that is offered them, eat slowly, and taste advisedly. They do not seek to leave places too quickly where they have been kindly received. They are always in for all the evening, for they know all games, and all that is neccessary for a gastronomical soiree.   Those, on the contrary, to whom nature has refused a desire for the gratifications of taste, have a long nose and face. Whatever be their statures, the face seems out of order. Their hair is dark and flat, and they have no embonpoint. They invented pantaloons.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste

“„De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“Bad sleepers! This is a new insult, and I intend to take out a patent for it, being the first to have discovered that it is an excommunication in itself.”
― Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“Az ízlés birodalmának is megvannak a maga vakjai és süketei.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du goût

“Mindamellett, jól megfontolva a dolgot, arra a meggyőződésre jutunk, hogy összes érzékeink közül az ízlésnek köszönhetjük a legtöbb élvezetünket:

1. Mert az evés élvezete az egyetlen, amelyet nem követ fáradtság, föltéve, hogy mérsékletesen élünk vele.
2. Mert minden időszakban, mindegyik életkorban, minden életföltétel közepett részünk van benne.
3. Mert szükségképen mindennapos élvezet, s huszonnégy óra alatt, egészségünknek minden kára nélkül, megismételhető kétszer, háromszor is.
4. Mert együtt járhat más élvezeteinkkel, másfelől vigasztalásunkra van, ha más örömünk nincsen.
5. Mert benyomásai elég tartósak s meglehetős részben akaratunktól függenek.
6. Végre, mert evés közben valami különös, meghatározhatatlan jólétet érzünk, ami bizonyára annak ösztönszerű érzéséből ered, hogy ekképen helyrehozzuk az életfolyamat okozta veszteséget s meghosszabbítjuk létünket.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du goût

“God has subjected man to six great necessities: birth, action, eating, sleep, reproduction and death.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste: Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy

“that the table established a kind of alliance between the parties, and made guests more apt to receive certain impressions and submit to certain influences. This was the origin of political gastronomy. Entertainments have become governmental measures, and the fate of nations is decided on in a banquet. This is neither a paradox nor a novelty but a simple observation”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste

“Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“  These senses, our favorites, are far from being perfect, and I will not pause to prove it. I will only observe, that that ethereal sense--sight, and touch, which is at the other extremity of the scale, have from time acquired a very remarkable additional power.   By means of spectacles the eye, so to say, escapes from the decay of age, which troubles almost all the other organs.   The telescope has discovered stars hitherto unknown and inaccessible to all our means of mensuration; it has penetrated distances so great, that luminous and necessarily immense bodies present themselves to us only like nebulous and almost imperceptible spots.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste

“A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with no heart.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin