“It is a curious fact that no man likes to call himself a glutton, and yet each of us has in him a trace of gluttony, potential or actual. I cannot believe that there exists a single coherent human being who will not confess, at least to himself, that once or twice he has stuffed himself to bursting point on anything...” — M.F.K. Fisher

“There is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and from mere gluttony.” — Henry David Thoreau

"Drunkenness is the ruiner of reason, the waster of our body's strength, it is premature old age and in a little while, it is death." — St. Basil the Great

“A mind does not receive truth as a chest receives jewels that are put into it, but as the stomach takes up food into the system. It is no longer food, but flesh, and is assimilated. The appetite and the power of digestion measure our right to knowledge. He has it who can use it. As soon as our accumulation overruns our invention or power to use, the evils of intellectual gluttony begin—congestion of the brain, apoplexy and strangulation.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Remember, that when I speak of pleasures I always mean the elegant pleasures of a rational being, and not the brutal ones of a swine. I mean la bonne chère, short of gluttony; wine, infinitely short of drunkenness; play, without the least gaming; and gallantry, without debauchery.” — Lord Chesterfield

“Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.” — Peter de Vries

"A gluttonous person is excessive in what, when, how, and how much he eats and drinks.” — St. Isidore

"Gluttony kills more than the sword.” — George Herbert

"O gluttony, it is to thee we owe our griefs!” — Geoffrey Chaucer

"Gluttony is a great fault; but we do not necessarily dislike a glutton. We only dislike the glutton when he becomes a gourmet—that is, we only dislike him when he not only wants the best for himself, but knows what is best for other people.” — G.K. Chesterton

“Ever a glutton, at another's cost, but in whose kitchen dwells perpetual frost.” — John Dryden

“The glutton is much more than an animal and much less than a man.” — Honore de Balzac

“The pleasures of the palate deal with us like Egyptian thieves who strangle those whom they embrace.” — Seneca

“Food is not evil, but gluttony is. Childbearing is not evil, but fornication is. Money is not evil, but avarice is. Glory is not evil, but vainglory is. Indeed, there is no evil in existing things, but only in their misuse.” — St. Maximus

“For it is not the food, but the desire that is in fault.” — St. Gregory

“For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with the arms of intelligence and with moral qualities which he may use for the worst ends. Wherefore, if he have not virtue, he is the most unholy and the most savage of animals, and the most full of lust and gluttony.” — Aristotle

“It is the just doom of laziness and gluttony to be inactive without ease and drowsy without tranquility.” — Samuel Johnson

"Every sense will crave its proper object, but that object in excess destroys the sense. The eye craves light, but not the direct rays of the sun; the ear craves sound, but not the shock of an explosion; and an overindulged taste forfeits its power of enjoyment...A certain fish discovered by Aristotle has its heart in its stomach, and is called the sea-donkey. The drunkard shares the characteristics of that lowly animal; his heart is where his treasure is: he is lazy, stupid, lustful, and open only to one argument a club. He lacks the higher qualities of the brute - a healthy appetite for water and the power of judging when he has enough. ... Our adversary, the devil, knows no rest and it behooves us, lest we be surprised, to be sober and to watch." — St. Robert Bellarmine

“As long as the vice of gluttony has a hold on a man, all that he has done valiantly is forfeited by him: and as long as the belly is unrestrained, all virtue comes to naught.” — St. Gregory

“Those then who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality, go down and up again as far as the mean; and in this region they move at random throughout life, but they never pass into the true upper world; thither they neither look, nor do they ever find their way, neither are they truly filled with true being, nor do they ever taste of pure and abiding pleasure.” — Socrates

"We may say of gluttony what we have said of impurity, that its pleasures are equally restricted and fleeting. Yet earth, sea, and air seem unable to gratify this passion, for many crimes are perpetrated, the poor are defrauded and oppressed, and little ones compelled to suffer hunger, to satisfy the sensuality of the great. It is deplorable to think that for the gratification of one sense man condemns himself body and soul to eternal suffering. What incomprehensible folly to flatter with such delicate care a body which is destined to be the food of worms! For this miserable body you neglect your soul, which will appear before the tribunal of God as poor in virtues as its earthly companion is rich in sensual pleasures. Nor will the body escape the punishment to which the soul will be condemned. Having been created for the soul, it will share its sufferings. Thus by neglecting the nobler part of your being to devote yourself to the inferior, you lose both and become your own executioner." — Ven. Louis of Granada

"The remedy for gluttony is to be vigilant in temperance and abstinence, as well as put the benefit of the soul in a higher regard than that of the body. In particular, one must carefully consider that the delight of gluttony is very brief and very often the pain of the stomach and the head-which follow-are longer." — St. Robert Bellarmine

“There is always a limit to self-indulgence, but none to self-restraint.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Modern Christians, especially those in the Western world, have generally been found wanting in the area of holiness of body. Gluttony and laziness, for example, were regarded by earlier Christians as sin. Today we may look on these as weaknesses of the will but certainly not sin. We even joke about our overeating and other indulgences instead of crying out to God in confession and repentance.” — Jerry Bridges

"That you may not be deceived by the snares of this vice disguised as necessities, govern your appetite by reason, not by inclination. Remember that your soul can never rule the flesh, if it be not itself submissive to God. This submission will be the rule and foundation of its empire. Let God command our reason; let reason direct the soul, and the soul will be able to govern the body. By observing this wise order decreed by the Creator, the whole man will be reformed." — Ven. Louis of Granada

"He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Never rise from the [tables of life] without having given due thanks to the Lord. If we act in this way, we need have no fear of the wretched sin of gluttony.” — St. Padre Pio