ANSWERS: 9
  • The aphorism, published in Poor Richard’s Almanack reads, “Hunger is the best pickle.” In the 1700s, pickles were commonly used as appetizers, as they on occasion are used today. Putting 2 and 2 together I came to the conclusion that “Hunger is the best appetizer.” An appetizer is something which creates or whets an appetite, so essentially Franklin is saying, “Hunger is the best enhancement to your meal.” http://www.ag.wastholm.net/message/399 It's another way of saying that hunger, like a good pickle, can make food seem to taste better and more interesting.
  • I don't think that's what it is. I think a pickle is like a conundrum, like being in a pickle. I think Franklin was saying that hunger is the best pickle to be in, some people don't just eat to live, they live to eat, and food is not the answer for everything.
  • Some other version of "hunger is the best spice". It means, if someone is absolutely hungry, the taste of food--no matter how bad--will taste better, simply because the person is starving. I don't know why someone would say "best pickle". Wouldn't a pickle stave off hunger? They're comparing pickle to hunger.
  • Pickles are sometimes used as appetizers but no better stimulate than hunger.
  • I dunno. A "side-dish" of a full life? ;-)
  • I heard that aphorism 30 years ago, along with one of my favorite sayings, "experience keeps a dear school, but a fool will learn in no other." I have always thought it had to mean something like, hunger is the best motivation for trying to accomplish something. The more "hungry" you are, the better motivated you are. However, I haven't ever been able to find anything to suggest that at some point back in the times of Franklin that a pickle was used as a motivation or some kind of reward, so I guess I'm wrong. The top answer isn't very persuasive to me, though, and I truly believe that the pickle is just an anology and the hunger is for something non-food. enticement, although if people here are saying that it was used as an appetizer, then maybe
  • i hadn heard that one before.
  • Well I think some of you guys are being to literal. I think he was meaning pickle as in problem. Hunger is the best "pickle" because it can be solved quite easily. This of course was written by someone who knew little about starvation,so he could solve it.Despite him being a little out of touch with today's times it still rings true for most, especially in America.
  • I always thought "hunger is the best sauce" was an interesting idiom. I think it is a similar sentiment.

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