Archive

Quotes

Alcohol is the monarch of liquids.

—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825

Modern life is often a mechanical oppression, and liquor is the only mechanical relief.

—Ernest Hemingway, 1935

The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station.

—Hunter S. Thompson, 1971

Sex and drugs and rock and roll.

—Ian Dury, 1977

Drink does not drown care but waters it, and makes it grow faster.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1749

The drunken man is a living corpse.

—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390

I am sure of this: that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now.

—Jane Austen, c. 1798

To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation.

—Oliver Sacks, 2012

Give me chastity and continence, but not just now.

—Saint Augustine, 397

It is impossible to live pleasurably without living wisely, well, and justly, and impossible to live wisely, well, and justly without living pleasurably.

—Epicurus, c. 300 BC

There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink.

—Booth Tarkington, 1914

Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.

—William James, 1902

People who’ve drunk neat wine don’t care a damn.

—Hipponax, c. 550 BC