A biography for Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarinhasn’t been written yet.
“The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity, than the discovery of a new star.”
“The centuries last passed have also given the taste important extension; the discovery of sugar, and its different preparations, of alcoholic liquors, of wine, ices, vanilla, tea and coffee, have given us flavors hitherto unknown.”
“The senses are the organs by which man places himself in connexion with exterior objects.”
“The sense of smell explores; deleterious substances almost always have an unpleasant smell.”
“I am essentially an amateur medecin, and this to me is almost a mania.”
“Hearing, which, by the motion of the air, informs us of the motion of sounding or vibrating bodies.”
“Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking.”
“באכילה אנו חווים רווחה מסוימת ובלתי ניתנת להגדרה, הנובעת מהוודאות האינסטינקטיבית שבעצם האכילה אנו מפצים על ההפסדים שנגרמו לנו ומאריכים את קיומנו.”
“גילוי של מאכל חדש תורם לאושר של האנושות יותר מאשר גילוי של כוכב.”
“עונג השולחן הוא בכל הגילאים, מכל המעמדות, מכל המדינות ובכל יום.”
“תגיד לי מה אתה אוכל ואגיד לך מי אתה.”
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.”
“The first thing we become convinced of is that man is organized so as to be far more sensible of pain than of pleasure.”
“The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race, has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied.”
“Taste, which enables us to distinguish all that has a flavor from that which is insipid.”
“All languages had their birth, their apogee and decline.”
“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.”
“Vegetables, which are the lowest in the scale of living things, are fed by roots, which, implanted in the native soil, select by the action of a peculiar mechanism, different subjects, which serve to increase and to nourish them.”
“Sight and touch, being thus increased in capacity, might belong to some species far superior to man; or rather the human species would be far different had all the senses been thus improved.”
“Nothing is more pleasant than to see a pretty woman, her napkin well placed under her arms, one of her hands on the table, while the other carries to her mouth, the choice piece so elegantly carved.”