Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you; drink always before the thirst, and it will never come upon you.
 François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534). copy citation

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Author François Rabelais
Source Gargantua and Pantagruel
Topic drinking thirst
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

“The stone called asbestos is not more unquenchable than the thirst of my paternity. Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston, but the thirst goes away with drinking. I have a remedy against thirst, quite contrary to that which is good against the biting of a mad dog. Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you; drink always before the thirst, and it will never come upon you. There I catch you, I awake you. Argus had a hundred eyes for his sight, a butler should have (like Briareus) a hundred hands wherewith to fill us wine indefatigably. Hey now, lads, let us moisten ourselves, it will be time to dry hereafter.” source

Meaning and analysis

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