Archive

Quotes

Drunkenness is the very sepulcher / Of man’s wit and his discretion.

—Geoffrey Chaucer, c. 1390

I have sometimes thought that the laws ought not to punish those actions of evil which are committed when the senses are steeped in intoxication.

—Walt Whitman, 1842

Life isn’t all beer and skittles, but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman’s education.

—Thomas Hughes, 1857

Sex and drugs and rock and roll.

—Ian Dury, 1977

Drinking with women is as unnatural as scolding with ’em.

—William Wycherley, 1675

Alcohol is the monarch of liquids.

—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825

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, 1795

Moderation in all things.

—Terence, 166 BC

The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it; we should refuse no occasion nor omit any opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

If you were to ask me if I’d ever had the bad luck to miss my daily cocktail, I’d have to say that I doubt it; where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead.

—Luis Buñuel, 1983

I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.

—Mitch Hedberg, 1999

As far as I can see, the history of experimental art in the twentieth century is intimately bound up with the experience of intoxification.

—Will Self, 1994

The drunken man is a living corpse.

—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390