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
Children and drunks always speak the truth.
—Common Proverb
The drunken man’s joy is often the sober man’s sorrow.
—Danish Proverb
I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin, which whosoever hath, hath not himself, which whosoever doth commit, doth not commit sin, but he himself is wholly sin.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
The best cure for drunkenness is whilst sober to observe a drunken person.
—Chinese Proverb
Wine is given to bring mirth not drunkenness.
—Latin Proverb
Habitual intoxication is the epitome of every crime.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
Drunkenness does not itself cause bad qualities but it does show them up clearly.
—Chinese Proverb
Wine is one thing, drunkenness another.
—Latin Proverb
A bad man talks about what he has eaten and drunk—a good man about what he has seen and heard.
—Chinese Proverb
Heaven protects children, sailors, and drunken men.
—German Proverb
Beware of drunkenness, lest all good men beware of thee.—Where drunkenness reigns, there reason is an exile, virtue a stranger, and God an enemy; blasphemy is wit, oaths are rhetoric, and secrets are proclamations.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
When your companions get drunk and fight, Take up your hat, and wish them good night.
—Japanese Proverb
All excess is ill; but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous, and mad. He that is drunk is not a man, because he is void of reason that distinguishes a man from a beast.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.
—Latin Proverb
To stop drinking, study a drunkard when you are sober.
—Chinese Proverb
Yesterday’s drunkenness will not quench today’s thirst.
—Egyptian Proverb
What a sober man has in his heart, a drunken man has on his lips.
—Danish Proverb
Drunk sweetly, paid sourly.
—German Proverb
If you want to know who your friends are, lie by the roadside and pretend to be drunk.
—Jamaican Proverb
A drunken may soon be made to dance.
—Danish Proverb
Some of the domestic evils of drunkenness are houses without windows, gardens without fences, fields without tillage, barns without roofs, children without clothing, principles, morals, or manners.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
A drunkards purse is a bottle.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Intoxicating drinks have produced evils more deadly, because more continuous, than all those caused to mankind by the great historic scourges of war, famine, and pestilence combined.
—William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) English Liberal Statesman, Prime Minister
Wine bears no blame—only the drunkard.
—Russian Proverb
Let there be an entire abstinence from intoxicating drinks throughout this country during the period of a single generation, and a mob would be as impossible as combustion without oxygen.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
Of all vices take heed of drunkenness. Other vices are but the fruits of disordered affections; this disorders, nay banishes reason.—Other vices but impair the soul; this demolishes her two chief acuities, the understanding and the will. Other vices make their own way; this makes way for all vices.—He that is a drunkard is qualified for all vice.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Nothing equals the joy of the drinker, except the joy of the wine in being drunk.
—French Proverb
It were better for a man to be subject to any vice, than to drunkenness; for all other vanities and sins are recovered, but a drunkard will never shake off the delight of beastliness; for the longer it possesseth a man, the more he will delight in it, and the older he groweth the more he shall be subject to it; for it dulleth the spirits, and destroyeth the body as ivy doth the ola tree; or as the worm that engendereth in the kernel of the nut.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
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