Echoes

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

An immoderate diet is unhealthy, but a temperate one preserves strength.

Excessive eating is like a deadly poison to the body and is a principal cause of all illness.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided.

The food which a temperate man leaves upon his plate is more beneficial than that which a glutton eats.

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

There 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.

As long as a person exercises, exerts himself greatly, does not eat to the point of being overly full, and keeps his bowels soft, illness will not come upon him and his strength will increase.

The stomach is not to be loaded, for there is nothing so hostile to thought as a full belly.

Walking is man's best medicine.

One should not eat unless one is hungry, nor drink unless one is thirsty.

You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That's what I always do. Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one — well, at least one and a half, I'm sure.

A person should not eat until his stomach is full. Rather, he should eat until he has consumed approximately three quarters of his fill.

Those who are slaves to their appetites cannot preserve their reason, their memory, or their senses in their full vigour; for a full belly does not produce a fine mind.

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.

I eat only what is enough to sustain my life. My food is bread, soup, an egg, and a little meat. And the amount I eat is no more than my body can easily digest.

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

Anyone who lives a sedentary life and does not exercise, even if he eats good foods and takes care of himself according to proper medical principles — all his days will be painful ones and his strength shall wane.

Idleness and lack of occupation tend — nay are dragged — towards evil.

If a man take no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.