Thanks be to God: since my leaving drinking of wine, I do find myself much better and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.

That which the sober man keeps in his breast, the drunken man lets out at the lips. Astute people, when they want to ascertain a man’s true character, make him drunk.

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

Moderation in all things.

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

The drunken man is a living corpse.

Give me chastity and continence, but not just now.

Whoever gulps down wine as a horse gulps down water is called a Scythian.

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

Abstainer, n. A weak man who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.

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.

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

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