The beginning and the root of all good is the pleasure of the stomach.

Absolutely Love this.

Here is the forum thread that discusses this quote:

Thread

'Their God Is The Belly" / "The Root of All Good Is The Pleasure Of The Stomach" And Similar Attributions

This weekend in our Sunday zoom which was devoted substantially to food issues we tangentially discussed the statements that I gather are traditionally attributed to Metrodorus to the effect that the stomach or belly is of particular significance.

I thought I'd paste the following here as what appears to be the major source of this, and repeat my belief that general statements of this type should be viewed with caution. These sources (particularly Plutarch) are substantially hostile, and I am…

Cassius

November 24, 2025 at 9:55 AM

Don is there anything new that you wrote here that could be added over in that discussion?

And Raphael Raul you might like to add your above comment to the on-going discussion in this linked forum thread as well (since the gallery isn't formated for long back and forth discussions).

[ U409 ]

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, XII p. 546F: And Epicurus says, "The principle and the root of all good is the pleasure of the stomach; even wisdom and culture must be referred to this."

(καὶ ὁ Ἐπίκουρος δέ φησιν ἀρχὴ καὶ ῥίζα παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ ἡ τῆς γαστρὸς ἡδονή: καὶ τὰ σοφὰ καὶ κτὰ περισσὰ ἐπὶ ταύτην ἔχει τὴν ἀναφοράν.’)

Ibid., VII p. 280A: The master of these men, indeed, was Epicurus, who loudly proclaimed… ["The principle," etc., cited above].

Metrodorus, Letter to his Brother Timocrates, fr. 13 [p. 51 Duen.], by way of Plutarch, That Epicurus actually makes a pleasant life impossible, 16, p. 1098D: {We are not called to save the nation or get crowned by it for wisdom; what is called for, my dear Timocrates, is to eat and to drink wine, gratifying the belly without harming it.} ... It made me both happy and confident to have learned from Epicurus how to gratify the belly properly. ... {The belly, Timocrates, my man of wisdom, is the region that contains the highest end.}

Cf. Plutarch, Against Colotes, 30, p. 1125A: For it is the men who look with contempt on all these things as old wives’ tales, and think that our good is to be found in the belly and the other passages by which pleasure makes her entry...

Ibid., 2, p. 1108C: ...by those who keep shouting that the good is to be found in the belly...

Plutarch, That Epicurus actually makes a pleasant life impossible, 17, p. 1098D: Indeed these people, you might say, describing a circle with the belly as center and radius, circumscribe within it the whole area of pleasure...

Cicero, Against Lucius Calpurnius Piso, 27.66: It is his habit in all his discussions to attach higher value to the pleasures of the belly than to the delights of the eye and the ear.

Cf. Plutarch, That Epicurus actually makes a pleasant life impossible, 2, p. 1087B: "Oho!" I said laughing. "It looks as if you are going to hop on their belly and make them run for their flesh when you take pleasure away..."

Cf. Hegesippus, by way of Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, VII p. 279D (Com. IV p. 481)

I don't know that it's a direct quote from anyone but I think we've regularly stated on the forum that neither pleasure nor pain nor good nor evil have any meaning except to the living. If you don't eat and drink you won't be living for very long, and regardless of any other implications I think that this statement can be justified on those grounds. Certainly there are many pleasures that do not directly involve the stomach, but in the end all of them do indirectly because without it we won't continue to live.

There's no real need in my view to look for any deeper or more hidden meaning than that. And certainly it does not mean that the specific pleasures of good food or good drink are the only kinds of pleasures that are really necessary and therefore that we should be content with having those alone.