Without health life is only a languishment and an image of death.
 François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534). copy citation

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Author François Rabelais
Source Gargantua and Pantagruel
Topic death health
Date 1534
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and Peter Antony Motteux
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1200/1200-h/1200-h.htm

Context

“See what has been declared very lately in that point by that learned, wise, courteous, humane and just civilian, Andrew Tiraqueau, one of the judges in the most honourable court of Parliament at Paris. Health is our life, as Ariphron the Sicyonian wisely has it; without health life is not life, it is not living life: abios bios, bios abiotos. Without health life is only a languishment and an image of death. Therefore, you that want your health, that is to say, that are dead, seize the quick; secure life to yourselves, that is to say, health. I have this hope in the Lord, that he will hear our supplications, considering with what faith and zeal we pray, and that he will grant this our wish because it is moderate and mean.” source