The Language of Food: Quotes on Eating and Eating Well

19th May 2009

The Language of Food: Quotes on Eating and Eating Well

I was looking for that perfect quote last night to illustrate a particular section of my paper and instead, came across lots of really good, clever, witty and thought-provoking ones about food and our relationships with food that I thought worthy of reposting here. If you had any others to add to the list, post ‘em in the comments below.

Food is our common ground, a universal experience. ~James Beard (I ended up choosing this one to underscore a section on why study food)

Food is an important part of a balanced diet. ~Fran Lebowitz

What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child? ~Lin Yutang

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. ~Mark Twain

Tell me what you eat, I’ll tell you who you are. ~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are. ~Adelle Davis

Hunger: One of the few cravings that cannot be appeased with another solution. ~Irwin Van Grove

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~Virginia Woolf

That’s something I’ve noticed about food: whenever there’s a crisis if you can get people to eating normally things get better. ~Madeleine L’Engle

Food for all is a necessity. Food should not be a merchandise, to be bought and sold as jewels are bought and sold by those who have the money to buy. Food is a human necessity, like water and air, it should be available. ~Pearl Buck

Food is the most primitive form of comfort. ~Sheilah Graham

Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture. ~Mark Kurlansky

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. ~J.R.R. Tolkien

I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly: feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The second day of a diet is always easier than the first. By the second day you’re off it. ~Jackie Gleason

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it. ~Aldous Huxley

The story of barbecue is the story of America: Settlers arrive on great unspoiled continent, discover wondrous riches, set them on fire and eat them. ~Vince Staten

Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food. ~Mary Bateson

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you, and be silent. ~Epictetus

There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry. ~Mark Twain

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. ~James Beard

If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny. ~Thomas Jefferson

Americans have more food to eat than any other people and more diets to keep them from eating it. ~Anonymous

I’ve been on a diet for two weeks and all I’ve lost is two weeks. ~Totie Fields

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease. ~George Dennison Prentice

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under Diets, Food Culture, Humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On May 19th, 2009, Tiptoe said:

A few I like are:

“Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks” by Marilynn Wann

“We are indeed much more than when we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than we are” by Adelle Davis

“Animals are my friends…and I don’t eat my friends” by George Bernard Shaw

“Leave the drugs in the chemist’s pot if you can heal the patient with food” by Hippocrates

“At the end of the day, it’s just food, isn’t it? Just food” by Marco Pierre White

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 10:59 am

2 On May 19th, 2009, spoonfork said:

I am so stealing that last one—it seriously says it all for me.

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 11:49 am

3 On May 19th, 2009, Lisa said:

Wonderful!

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 11:57 am

4 On May 19th, 2009, J.von said:

This is fantastic! I’m really fond of that Woolf quote.

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

5 On May 19th, 2009, Rachel_in_WY said:

I love Adelle Davis, and haven’t heard her name in years!

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

6 On May 19th, 2009, jojokaffe said:

Given the current state of affairs, Thomas Jefferson’s quote really speaks to me.

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

7 On May 19th, 2009, Kate said:

in The Year of Magical Thinking, which I just read, Joan Didion quotes an early edition of Emily Post talking about what to feed a grieving person, how to offer broth before they ask for it, and then follows it up with more recent science about what grief does to the appetite. Maybe not a trenchant quote but an interesting, early understanding of the basic Food=Good message that seems so countercultural lately.

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

8 On May 19th, 2009, le_mo said:

once again this website kept me from relapse & made me smile. Thanks so much

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

9 On May 19th, 2009, Twistie said:

It just so happens that I have a few quotes at my fingertips that seem appropriate to add:

I happen to believe that humans were born to feed one another. The meal is our celebration of nuturance and our secular communion – Steve Almond

Sometimes, eating alone you are humble. Sometimes, though, the reason to go through with cooking for yourself is the chance to brag about it afterward – Phoebe Noble

There was nothing guilt-making about the foods I had chosen. They were simply flavors and textures that I love – Amanda Hesser

So what does it say about my self-esteem that I know perfectly well how to make a veloute and yet would choose to crack open a can of SpaghettiO’s when dining alone? (I am not using “SpaghettiO’s” as a metaphor here.) Do I not believe that I am entitled to the same level of tenderness that I extend to others? Or is it, in fact, a greater level of self-love to not put myself through the hassle of making dinner? – Ann Patchett

Dinner alone is one of life’s pleasures. Certainly cooking for oneself reveals man at his weirdest. People lie when you ask them what they eat when they are alone. A salad, they tell you. But when you persist, they confess to peanut butter and bacon sandwiches deep fried and eaten with hot sauce, or spaghetti with butter and grape jam – Laurie Colwin

What can I say? I’ve got a million of ‘em!

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 3:59 pm

10 On May 19th, 2009, Cute Bruiser said:

My family’s motto has always been “Life is uncertain; eat dessert first.” We even have a magnet to that effect on the fridge!

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 4:59 pm

11 On May 19th, 2009, Cleric at Large said:

Yeah, so I’m biased towards the one source… but here are a few of my favourites.

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food. ”
-The Prophet Isaiah (55:2)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ”
-Jesus Christ (Matt 6:25)

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!”
-Jesus Christ (Luke 7:33-34)

12 On May 19th, 2009, Jae Walker said:

“Life is too short to eat bad food.” Me…

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 5:07 pm

13 On May 19th, 2009, cms said:

One more Biblical one (hopefully correct):

Matthew 15:11

“It is not what goes into the mouth that makes a person unclean. It is what comes out of the mouth that makes a person unclean.”

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

14 On May 21st, 2009, catgal said: