The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all areas; it mingles with all other pleasures, and remains at last to console us for their departure.

Gourmandism is an act of judgment, by which we prefer things which have a pleasant taste to those which lack this quality.

Gourmandise is an impassioned, rational, and habitual preference for all objects which flatter the sense of taste.

Meals, in the sense in which we understand this word, began with the second age of the human species.

The first thing we become convinced of is that man is organized so as to be far more sensible of pain than of pleasure.

I am a strong partisan of second causes, and I believe firmly that the entire gallinaceous order has been merely created to furnish our larders and our banquets.

Gastronomers of the year 1825, who find sateity in the lap of abundance, and dream of some newly-made dishes, you will not enjoy the discoveries which science has in store for the year 1900, such as foods drawn from the mineral kingdom, liqueurs produced by the pressure of a hundred atmospheres; you will never see the importations which travelers yet unborn will bring to you from that half of the globe which has still to be discovered or explored. How I pity you!