Eating

Ptahhotep:  When you sit with company, shun the food you like.

Ptahhotep:  Restraint of heart is (only) a brief moment ! Only a moment’s effort is required.

Ptahhotep:  Gluttony is base and one points the finger at it.

Ptahhotep:  A cup of water quenches thirst, a mouthful of herbs strengthens the heart. It makes one feel stronger, vitalized and envigorated.

Ptahhotep:  A single good thing stands for goodness as a whole, a little something stands for much.

Ptahhotep:  Vile is he whose belly is voracious ; time passes and he forgets in whose house the belly strides. The more one eats, the more one forgets the food was given – i.e. the voracious is ungrateful.

Ptahhotep:  When you sit with a glutton, eat when his appetite has passed.

Ptahhotep:  When you drink with a drunkard, partake when his heart is happy. Feast not with a bad-tempered drunk.

Ptahhotep:  Do not grab (your) meat by the side of a glutton, (but) take when he gives You, do not refuse it, then it will soothe. The crocodile snaps its meat voraciously and without consideration – if one attacks one’s meat in the vicinity of the glutton, he will feel disadvantaged and spoil the meal.

Ptahhotep:  He who is blameless in matters of food, no word can prevail against him.

Maimonides:  Just as a wise man is distinct in his wisdom and his character traits, and he stands apart from others regarding them, so too he must be distinct in his deeds, in his eating, in his drinking, in his marital relations, in his going to the bathroom, in his speech, in his walk, in his clothes, in his satisfying his needs, and in his business dealings.  All such deeds of his should be especially pleasant and proper (lit., ‘fixed up’).  

Maimonides:  A Torah scholar should not be a glutton but should eat only food which will maintain his health.  And he should not overeat even such foods.  

Maimonides:  He should not run to fill his stomach as those who fill up from food and drink until their stomachs are ready to burst.