Nothing equals the joy of the drinker, except the joy of the wine in being drunk.
—French Proverb
Troops of furies march in the drunkard’s triumph.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
When I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didn’t know how to play them when I was drunk.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
Drunk sweetly, paid sourly.
—German Proverb
You don’t get a headache from what other people have drunk.
—Russian Proverb
Ever drunk, ever dry.
—Latin Proverb
If the master gets drunk it is an honorable drunkenness; if the servant does it is evidence of his mean disposition.
—Tibetan Proverb
There is scarcely a crime before me that is not, directly or indirectly, caused by strong drink.
—Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) English Writer, Poet
Life is like perpetual drunkenness, the pleasure passes but the headache remains.
—Persian Proverb
The sober man’s secret is the drunkard’s speech.
—Russian Proverb
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
Drunkenness does not itself cause bad qualities but it does show them up clearly.
—Chinese Proverb
Drunkards talk to the gods.
—Chinese Proverb
For a drunkard the sea only reaches his knees.
—Russian Proverb
The best cure for drunkenness is whilst sober to observe a drunken person.
—Chinese Proverb
Drunkenness makes some men fools, some beasts, and some devils.
—Latin Proverb
Nothing bears a stronger resemblance to a madman than a man when drunk.
—Latin Proverb
Since the wine is drawn it must be drunk.
—French Proverb
What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.
—Latin Proverb
There are more old drunkards than old physicians.
—Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist
Only a fool gets drunk from his own bottle.
—French Proverb
When your companions get drunk and fight, Take up your hat, and wish them good night.
—Japanese Proverb
A bad man talks about what he has eaten and drunk—a good man about what he has seen and heard.
—Chinese Proverb
I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
There’s no harm in wine; it’s drunkenness that is at fault.
—Russian 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
Wine is one thing, drunkenness another.
—Latin Proverb
One reason I don’t drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time.
—Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor (1879–1964) American-born British Politician
Wine bears no blame—only the drunkard.
—Russian Proverb
A drunken man, when asleep, is better left alone.
—Latin Proverb
A drunkards purse is a bottle.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Wine that cost nothing is digested before it be drunk.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
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
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
When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
Mad drunkenness discloses every secret.
—Latin Proverb
All the armies on earth do not destroy so many of the human race, nor alienate so much property, as drunkenness.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The cask full, the mother-in-law drunk.
—Spanish Proverb
Children and drunks always speak the truth.
—Common Proverb
Sin when you are drunk, pay the fine when you are sober.
—German Proverb
Eat until you are half full; drink until you are half drunk.
—Russian Proverb
He who is drunk from wine can sober up, he who is drunk from wealth cannot.
—African Proverb
The drunken mouth reveals the heart’s secrets.
—German Proverb
When a rich man falls they say it was an accident; when a poor man falls they say that he was drunk.
—Turkish Proverb
If you want to know who your friends are, lie by the roadside and pretend to be drunk.
—Jamaican Proverb
Yesterday’s drunkenness will not quench today’s thirst.
—Egyptian Proverb
Heaven protects children, sailors, and drunken men.
—German Proverb
To drunken mothers-in-law give full jugs.
—Spanish Proverb
Drunkenness is the vice of a good constitution or of a bad memory—of a constitution so treacherously good that it never bends till it breaks; or of a memory that recollects the pleasures of getting intoxicated, but forgets the pains of getting sober.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist