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FOOD QUOTES SECTION

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Onion Food Quotes

“There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars.”
Charles Dickens, 'A Christmas Carol' (1843)
 

“If you hear an onion ring, answer it.”
anonymous

“Banish (the onion) from the kitchen and the pleasure flies with it. Its presence lends color and enchantment to the most modest dish; its absence reduces the rarest delicacy to hopeless insipidity, and dinner to despair.”
Elizabeth Robbins Pennell, American columnist
 

“All food or drinks which taint the breath or cause disagreeable eructations should be avoided by persons going into company. Onions emit so disagreeable an odour that no truly polite person will eat them when liable to inflice their fumes upon others.”
John S. Marr, ‘How to Behave: A Pocket Manual of Etiquette’ (1867)
 

“Life is like an onion; you peel off layer after layer and then you find there is nothing in it.”
James Gibbons Huneker, American musician, critic
 

“It's probably illegal to make soups, stews and casseroles without plenty of onions.”
Maggie Waldron, American author and editor
 

“The onion and its satin wrappings is among the most beautiful of vegetables and is the only one that represents the essence of things. It can be said to have a soul.”
Charles Dudley Warner, ‘My Summer in a Garden’ (1871)
 

"There was an Old Man of Kilkenny,
Who never had more than a penny;
He spent all that money,
     in onions and honey,
That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny."
Edward Lear, English artist, writer; known for his 'literary nonsense' & limericks  (1812-1888)
 

"Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a harmony of aspiration."
Charles Dudley Warner, 'My Summer in a Garden' (1871)
 

"onions do promote a man to veneryous actes, and to somnolence."
Andrew Boorde (1542) 'Dietary of Helthe'
 

"Onions can make even heirs and widows weep."
Benjamin Franklin
 

"...eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath..."
William Shakespeare
 

"I understand the big food companies are developing a tearless onion. I think they can do it -- after all, they've already given us tasteless bread."
Robert Orben
 

"An onion can make people cry, but there has never been a vegetable invented to make them laugh."
Will Rogers (1879-1935)
 

“There are two types of onions, the big white Spanish and the little red Italian. The Spanish has more food value and is therefore chosen to make soup for huntsmen and drunkards, two classes of people who require fast recuperation."
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)
 

“Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”
Carl Sandburg
 

“My own remedy is always to eat, just before I step into bed, a hot roasted onion, if I have a cold.”
George Washington (attributed)
 

“The kitchen, reasonably enough, was the scene of my first gastronomic adventure. I was on all fours. I crawled into the vegetable bin, settled on a giant onion and ate it, skin and all. It must have marked me for life, for I have never ceased to love the hearty flavor of raw onions.”
James Beard (1903-1985)
 

“This is every cook's opinion
No savory dish without an onion,
But lest your kissing should be spoiled
Your onions must be fully boiled.”
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
 

"Shallots are for babies; Onions are for men; garlic is for heroes."
?????
 

"An honest laborious Country-man, with good Bread, Salt and a little Parsley, will make a contented Meal with a roasted Onion."
John Evelyn (1620-1706)
 

"Beet ever so onion there snow peas legume."
Margaret Thornley, in 'A Kick in the Seat of the Pants', Roger von Oech
 

"Red onions are especially divine. I hold a slice up to the sunlight pouring in through the kitchen window, and it glows like a fine piece of antique glass. Cool watery-white with layers delicately edged with imperial purple...strong, humble, peaceful...with that fiery nub of spring green in the center..."
Mary Hayes Grieco, 'The Kitchen Mystic'
 

"And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath."
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
'A Midsummer Night's Dream'