"the only prayers never denied are moderate ones."

     "And I believe that God will hear our prayers, since we make them with such firm faith, and will grant us our wish, it being so moderate [(mediocre)].  The wise men of old called moderation [(Mediocrité)] golden—that is precious, universally praised, welcome everywhere.  Look through the sacred Bible [(les sacres bibles)] and you'll find that the only prayers never denied are moderate ones [(que ont mediocrité requis, those characterized by the requisite moderation)]."

     Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel IV.Prologue (trans. Burton Raffel (New York & London:  W. W. Norton & Company, 1990), 384).  According to the 1994 Pléiade edition annotated by Mireille Huchon, mediocrité (juste milieu, golden mean) acquired the pejorative sense it has today only in the 17th century (1487n7).  Trans. Urquhart & Motteux:  "the prayers of those who asked moderately were never unanswered."

     And that's how it is, that's what happens to those who, simply, innocently, wish only for moderate things, and make moderate choices [(en simplicité soubhaitent et optent choses mediocres)].  Learn from them, you other lowland humbugs [391].