Modern life is often a mechanical oppression, and liquor is the only mechanical relief.
—Ernest Hemingway, 1935Quotes
Give me chastity and continence, but not just now.
—Saint Augustine, 397I mean, why on earth (outside sickness and hangovers) aren’t people continually drunk? I want ecstasy of the mind all the time.
—Jack Kerouac, 1957Moderation in all things.
—Terence, 166 BCA man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated has not the art of getting drunk.
—Samuel Johnson, 1779That 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.
—Martin Luther, 1569Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
—Gore Vidal, 1981My advice to people today is as follows: if you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.
—Timothy Leary, 1966As 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, 1994As he brews, so shall he drink.
—Ben Jonson, 1598Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
—Herman Melville, 1851Whoever gulps down wine as a horse gulps down water is called a Scythian.
—Athenaeus, c. 230There 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