Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Hunger
Hunger is sharper than the sword.
Beaumont and Fletcher—The Honest Man’s Fortune. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 1.
Bone and Skin, two millers thin,
Would starve us all, or near it;
But be it known to Skin and Bone
That Flesh and Blood can’t bear it.
John Byrom—Epigram on Two Monopolists.
It is difficult to speak to the belly, because it has no ears.
Cato the Censor, when the Romans demanded corn. See Plutarch’s Life of Cato the Censor.
La mejor salsa del mundo es la hambre.
Hunger is the best sauce in the world.
Cervantes—Don Quixote.
Enough is as good as a feast.
George Chapman—Eastward Ho! Act III. Sc. 2. Written by Chapman, Jonson, Marston.
Socratem audio dicentem, cibi condimentum esse famem, potionis sitim.
I hear Socrates saying that the best seasoning for food is hunger; for drink, thirst.
Cicero—De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum. II. 28.
Oliver Twist has asked for more.
Dickens—Oliver Twist. Ch. II.
A fishmonger’s wife may feed of a conger; but a serving-man’s wife may starve for hunger.
Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen. (1598).
They that die by famine die by inches.
Matthew Henry—Commentaries. Psalm LIX.
Græculus esuriens in cœlum, jusseris, ibit.
Bid the hungry Greek go to heaven, he will go.
Juvenal—Satires. III. 78.
Magister artis ingeniique largitor venter.
The belly is the teacher of art and the bestower of genius.
Persius—Satires. Prologue. X.
Famem fuisse suspicor matrem mihi.
I suspect that hunger was my mother.
Plautus—Stichus. Act II. 1. 1.
Obliged by hunger and request of friends.
Pope—Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. L. 44.
La ventre affamé n’point d’oreilles.
Hungry bellies have no ears.
Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. III. Ch. XV.
Nec rationem patitur, nec æquitate mitigatur nec ulla prece flectitur, populus esuriens.
A hungry people listens not to reason, nor cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers.
Seneca—De Brevitate Vitæ. XVIII.
They said they were an-hungry; sigh’d forth proverbs,
That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat,
That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not
Corn for the rich men only: with these shreds
They vented their complainings.
Coriolanus. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 209.
Our stomachs
Will make what’s homely savoury.
Cymbeline. Act III. Sc. 6. L. 32.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
Julius Cæsar. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 194.
My more-having would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more.
Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 81.
Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave.
Thomson—The Seasons. Winter. L. 393.
Malesuada fames.
Hunger that persuades to evil.
Vergil—Æneid. VI. 276.