The stomach is not to be loaded, for there is nothing so hostile to thought as a full belly.
An immoderate diet is unhealthy, but a temperate one preserves strength.
Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, set forth tables of dead, stale bodies, and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived.
PlutarchThere are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man's life: "Know thyself," and "Nothing too much;" and upon these all other precepts depend.
Luigi Cornaro·1558The food which a temperate man leaves upon his plate is more beneficial than that which a glutton eats.
Maimonides·1170One should not eat unless one is hungry, nor drink unless one is thirsty.
