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

Give me chastity and continence, but not just now.

I mean, why on earth (outside sickness and hangovers) aren’t people continually drunk? I want ecstasy of the mind all the time.

Moderation in all things.

A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated has not the art of getting drunk.

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.

Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.

My 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.

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

As he brews, so shall he drink.

Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

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

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