Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Drinking

I think a man ought to get drunk at least twice a year just on principle, so he won’t let himself get snotty about it.
Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher

Drink today, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow; Best, while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor

It is well to remember that there are five reasons for drinking: the arrival of a friend, one’s present or future thirst, the excellence of the wine, or any other reason.
Latin Proverb

Drunkenness is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness
Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic

Every moderate drinker could abandon the intoxicating cup, if he would; every inebriate would if he could.
John Bartholomew Gough (1817–86) Anglo-American Temperance Orator

Wine is sunlight, held together by water.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician

I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.
Unknown

It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.
George Burns (1896–1996) American Comedian

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.
Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher

Man being reasonable must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication. Glory, the grape, love, gold – in these are sunk the hopes of all men and of every nation.
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet

A new morality has burst upon us with some violence in connection with the problem of strong drink; and enthusiasts in the matter range from the man who is violently thrown out at 12.30, to the lady who smashes American bars with an axe. In these discussions it is almost always felt that one very wise and moderate position is to say that wine or such stuff should only be drunk as a medicine. With this I should venture to disagree with a peculiar ferocity. The one genuinely dangerous and immoral way of drinking wine is to drink it as a medicine. And for this reason: If a man drinks wine in order to obtain pleasure, he is trying to obtain something exceptional; something he does not expect every hour of the day; something which, unless he is a little insane, he will not try to get every hour of the day. But if a man drinks wine in order to obtain health, he is trying to get something natural; something, that is, that he ought not to be without; something that he may find it difficult to reconcile himself to being without. The man may not be seduced who has seen the ecstasy of being ecstatic; it is more dazzling to catch a glimpse of the ecstasy of being ordinary.
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet

Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist

A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender.
Jim Bishop (1907–87) American Journalist, Author

Bacchus’ blessings are a treasure; Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure.
John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright

I am grieved that it should be said he is my brother, and take these courses. Well, as he brews, so shall he drink, for George again. Yet he shall hear on’t, and tightly, too, an’ I live, i’faith.
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor

Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.
Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist

Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems not now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and I believe all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State

I envy people who drink – at least they know what to blame everything on.
Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor

The first draught serveth for health, the second for pleasure, the third or shame, and the fourth for madness.
Anacharsis (fl. 6th century BCE) Scythian Prince

Drunkards are doomed to hell, so men declare, Believe it not, ’tis but a foolish scare; Heaven will be empty as this hand of mine, If none who love good drink find entrance there.
Omar Khayyam (1048–1123) Persian Mathematician

Under a bad cloak there is often a good drinker
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist

Champagne does have one regular drawback: swilled as a regular thing a certain sourness settles in the tummy, and the result is permanent bad breath. Really incurable.
Truman Capote (1924–84) American Novelist

The maxim, “in vino Veritas—that a man who is well warmed with wine will speak truth,” may be an argument for drinking, if you suppose men in general to be liars; but, sir, I would not keep company with a fellow, who lies as long as he is sober, and whom you must make drunk before you can get a word of truth out of him.
Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
Henny Youngman (1906–98) Anglo-American Comedian, Violinist

To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed.
John Tillotson

I drink no more than a sponge
Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist

The chief reason for drinking is the desire to behave in a certain way, and to be able to blame it on alcohol.
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author

Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your neighbor. It makes you shoot at your landlord and it makes you miss him.
Anonymous

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