Woe to you, my Princess, when I come… you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle little girl who doesn’t eat enough or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
One pill, two pill, three pill, four,
five pill, six pill, seven pill, floor.
—Anonymous
Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations—wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
If even a small fraction of the money we now spend on trying to enforce drug prohibition were devoted to treatment and drug rehabilitation, in an atmosphere of compassion not punishment, the reduction in drug usage and in the harm done to users could be dramatic.
—Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American Economist
Nobody saves America by sniffing cocaine,
jiggling your knees blankly in the rain.
When it snows in your nose
you catch cold in your brain.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.
—Salvador Dali (1904–89) Spanish Painter
Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
A drug is neither moral nor immoral—it’s a chemical compound. The compound itself is not a menace to society until a human being treats it as if consumption bestowed a temporary license to act like an asshole.
—Frank Zappa (1940–93) American Rock Guitarist, Singer, Composer
I think religion is bad and drugs are good.
—Bill Maher (b.1956) American Comedian, TV Personality, Social Critic, Author, Actor
Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution—then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Only one thing is certain: if pot is legalized, it won’t be for our benefit but for the authorities . To have it legalized will also be to lose control of it.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
It is not opium which makes me work but its absence, and in order for me to feel its absence it must from time to time be present.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
There is only one reason why men become addicted to drugs, they are eak men. Only strong men are cured, and they cure themselves.
—Martin H. Fischer
We have drugs to make women speak, but none to keep them silent.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies, if you choose to make them pay high for such joy as they give and such harm as they do.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Words are the most powerful drugs used by mankind.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
Drugs are not always necessary, but belief in recovery always is.
—Norman Cousins (1912–1990) American Political Journalist
Reality is just a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs.
—Robin Williams (b.1951) American Actor, Comedian
A fool who, after plain warning, persists in dosing himself with dangerous drugs should be free to do so, for his death is a benefit to the race in general.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
Pharma industry is the art of making billions from milligrams.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
No monster vibration, no snake universe hallucinations. Many tiny jeweled violet flowers along the path of a living brook that looked like Blake’s illustration for a canal in grassy Eden: huge Pacific watery shore, Orlovsky dancing naked like Shiva long-haired before giant green waves, titanic cliffs that Wordsworth mentioned in his own Sublime, great yellow sun veiled with mist hanging over the planet’s oceanic horizon. No harm.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
There seems to be no stopping drug frenzy once it takes hold of a nation. What starts with an innocuous HUGS, NOT DRUGS bumper sticker soon leads to wild talk of shooting dealers and making urine tests a condition for employment—anywhere.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–2022) American Social Critic, Essayist
Reality is the crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs.
—Lily Tomlin (b.1939) American Comedy Actress
There is held to be no surer test of civilization than the increase per head of the consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Yet alcohol and tobacco are recognizable poisons, so that their consumption has only to be carried far enough to destroy civilization altogether.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Sexologist, Physician, Social Reformer