Gourmandise is an impassioned, rational, and habitual preference for all objects which flatter the sense of taste.
Interpretation
Gourmandise refers to a deep, rational love for food and taste experiences.
This quote by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin reflects on the concept of 'gourmandise', which signifies more than just a love for food; it underscores a profound appreciation for flavors that are both logical and instinctual. It encompasses not only the act of eating but also the joy and sensory pleasure derived from exquisite culinary experiences, portraying gastronomy as a significant aspect of human existence.
In practice
During a dinner party, one might say this quote to celebrate the joy of fine dining.
It has been shown as proof positive that carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested... that it is above all helpful to people who must do a great deal of mental work.
The limits of pleasure are as yet neither known nor fixed, and that we have no idea what degree of bodily bliss we are capable of attaining.
Place a substantial meal before a tired man and he will eat with effort and be little better for it at first. Give him a glass of wine or brandy, and immediately he feels better: you see him come to life again before you.
Gourmandism is an act of judgment, by which we prefer things which have a pleasant taste to those which lack this quality.
In the hands of an able cook, fish can become an inexhaustible source of perpetual delight.
You first parents of the human race...who ruined yourself for an apple, what might you have done for a truffled turkey?
Don't run your life by what's legal or illegal. Run your life based on what's right or wrong.
Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies! gone down the American river! Dreams! adorations! illumnations! religions! the whole boatload of sensitive bullshit!
Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our day, faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day's problems.
To put it crudely but graphically, the monkey who did not have a realistic perception of the tree branch he jumped for was soon a dead monkey-and therefore did not become one of our ancestors.
I wonder that we Americans love our country at all, it having no limits and no oneness; and when you try to make it a matter of the heart, everything falls away except one's native State; -neither can you seize hold of that, unless you tear it out of the Union, bleeding and quivering.
The truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow.
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