Drink

Jolly nose! there are fools who say drink hurts the sight;
Such dullards know nothing about it.
'Tis better, with wine, to extinguish the light,
Than live always, in darkness, without it!
~ William Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, A Romance (1839). Drinking Song

Beware the deadly fumes of that insane elation
Which rises from the cup of mad impiety,
And go, get drunk with that divine intoxication
Which is more sober far than all sobriety.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger, from The Poetry of the East (1856). Metrical Specimens ... The Sober Drunkenness

Fill up the goblet and reach me some!
Drinking makes wise, but dry fasting makes glum!
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger, from The Poetry of the East (1856). Metrical Specimens ... Wine Song of Kaitmas

Poor Paddy of all Christian men I think
On basest food pours down the vilest drink.
~ William Allingham, from Lawrence Bloomfield in Ireland (1864). Chapter 12: Midsummer (note: these lines were quoted by William Ewart Gladstone in a speech to the House of Commons on 30 May 1864)

Children of a culture born in a water-rich environment, we have never really learned how important water is to us. We understand it, but we do not respect it.
~ William Ashworth, Nor Any Drop to Drink (1982).

One major, overwhelming reason why we are running out of water is that we are killing the water we have.
~ William Ashworth, Nor Any Drop to Drink (1982).

The soft extractive note of an aged cork being withdrawn has the true sound of a man opening his heart.
~ William Samuel Benwell, Journey to Wine in Victoria (1976).

A man is drunk when he feels sophisticated and can't pronounce it.
~ Captain Billy's Whiz Bang (1928 Winter Annual), in Studies in American Humor. Volume III (January 1977); William Cole From Scatology to Social History: Captain Billy's Whiz Bang

Prohibition motto: Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow your bootlegger may get caught.
~ Captain Billy's Whiz Bang

The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

The shortest way out of Manchester is notoriously a bottle of Gordon's gin.
~ William Bolitho

A population sodden with drink, steeped in vice, eaten up by every social and physical malady, these are the denizens of Darkest England amidst whom my life has been spent.
~ William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out (October 1890). Part I. -- The Darkness. Chapter I. Why "Darkest England"?

Many a man takes to beer, not from the love of beer, but from a natural craving for the light, warmth, company, and comfort which is thrown in along with the beer, and which he cannot get excepting by buying beer.
~ William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out (October 1890). Part I. -- The Darkness. Chapter VI. The Vicious

Sing we a song of merry glee,
And Bacchus fill the bowl!
Then here's to thee! And thou to me!
And every thirsty soul!
~ William Browne, of Tavistock, in The Poems of William Browne of Tavistock, Volume 2 (1894). Miscellaneous Poems. A Round.

To buy very good wine nowadays requires only money. To serve it to your guests is a sign of fatigue.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr., in Harpers Bazaar (September 1979)

Red wine is for old boys
One of the best gifts.
~ Wilhelm Busch, Adventure bachelors (1875).

Beer is not a good cocktail party drink, especially in a home where you don't know where the bathroom is.
~ Billy Carter, Boston Beer Company Calendar (1996). April 18 entry

I had this beer brewed just for me. I think its the best I ever tasted. And I've tasted a lot. I think you'll like it too.
~ Billy Carter, Message on "Billy Beer" can (1977).

Paintings are like a beer, only beer tastes good and it's hard to stop drinking beer.
~ Billy Carter, Billy Carter on Art: Is Painted Clowns Art? (1980).

Alcohol is perfectly consistent in its effects upon man. Drunkenness is merely an exaggeration. A foolish man drunk becomes maudlin; a bloody man, vicious; a coarse man, vulgar.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, in Overland Monthly (January 1896). On the Divide

I view the tea-drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame, an engenderer of effeminancy and laziness, a debaucher of youth, and a maker of misery for old age.
~ William Cobbett, Cottage Economy (1821).

The horrid mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my head like liquor, and makes me wild.
~ (William) Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868).

Let Apollo's example invite us;
For he's drunk every night,
And that makes him so bright,
That he's able next morning to light us.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act IV, scene x

Oh, for the universe, not a drop more, I beseech you.
~ William Congreve, The Double Dealer, Act V, scene i (1694).

To drink is a Christian diversion,
Unknown to the Turk or the Persian.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act IV, scene xi

[A]nd the cups,
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book IV. The Winter Evening

Time, whilst thy hour-glass does run out,
This flowing glass shall go about.
~ Sir William Davenant, in The Man's the Master (1669).

I'm born, w'ere de mountain scrape de sky,
An' bone of ma fader an' moder lie,
So I fill de glass an' I raise it high
An' drink to de Voyageur.
~ William Henry Drummond, from The Voyageur and Other Poems (1905). The Voyageur

I ain't that particular. Between Scotch and nothing, I'll take Scotch.
~ William Faulkner, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 12 (Spring 1956). The Art of Fiction No. 12

There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty; then he's a damn fool if he doesn't.
~ William Faulkner, quoted in William Faulkner of Oxford (1965).

A wonderful drink, wine. ... Did you ever hear of an Italian grape crusher with athlete's foot?
~ W.C. Fields

All roads lead to rum.
~ W.C. Fields

Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a snake.
~ W.C. Fields

How well I remember my first encounter with The Devil's Brew. I happened to stumble across a case of bourbon -- and went right on stumbling for several days thereafter.
~ W.C. Fields, The Temperance Lecture (1938 radio broadcast)

I always keep a supply of stimulant handy in case I see a snake -- which I also keep handy.
~ W.C. Fields, Attributed

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
~ W.C. Fields

I must have a drink of breakfast.
~ W.C. Fields

I've been drunk only once in my life. But that lasted for twenty-three years.
~ W.C. Fields

I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.
~ W.C. Fields

I never worry about being driven to drink; I just worry about being driven home.
~ W.C. Fields

I only drink to steady my nerves. Sometimes I'm so steady I don't move for months.
~ W.C. Fields

Now don't say you can't swear off drinking; it's easy. I've done it a thousand times.
~ W.C. Fields, The Temperance Lecture (1938 radio broadcast)

Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days.
~ W.C. Fields, My Little Chickadee (1940 screenplay)

So long as the presence of death lurks with anyone who goes through the simple act of swallowing, I will make mine whiskey.
~ W.C. Fields

Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.
~ W.C. Fields, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939 film).

Sorry my fine public servants, but I haven't enough of this nectar to pass about willy nilly.
~ W.C. Fields (when pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving), quoted in W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes (1949).

The advantages of whiskey over dogs are legion. Whiskey does not need to be periodically wormed, it does not need to be fed, it never requires a special kennel, it has no toenails to be clipped or coat to be stripped. Whiskey sits quietly in its special nook until you want it. True, whiskey has a nasty habit of running out, but then so does a dog.
~ W.C. Fields

There are only two real ways to get ahead today -- sell liquor or drink it.
~ W.C. Fields

Thou shalt not kill anything less than a fifth.
~ W.C. Fields, quoted in W.C. Fields & Me (1971).

We frequently hear of people dying from too much drinking ... that this happens is a matter of record. But the blame almost always is placed on whiskey. Why this should be I never could understand. You can die from drinking too much of anything ...
~ W.C. Fields

Who has not experienced the unutterable despair that follows the crash of a treasured bottle.
~ W.C. Fields

Love takes the taint of years,
And beauty disappears,
But wine in worth matures
The longer it endures.
~ William Forster, Midas (1882). The Love in her Eyes lay Sleeping

Drawn by warm nostalgic feelings for the place and by two sweet little words: "Open Bar."
~ William E. Geist, (15 February 1986).

A taste for drink, combined with gout,
Had doubled him up for ever.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert

If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, (1865)

As we passed through Maine, we came under the veto of the famous Prohibition Laws and had the curious experience of being absolutely unable to get, for love or money, anything stronger by way of refreshment than thick soup washed down by tea!
~ William Gilbert (W.G.) Grace

Men are more commonly affected with scirrhous livers than women, because they are more given to intemperate drinking, which is the principal cause of this disorder.
~ William Heberden (on Cirrhosis of the liver), in Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases (1802).

The Spirit of Wine
Sang in my glass, and I listened
With love to his odorous music,
His flushed and magnificent song.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley

Here all is joyous and thriving. Industry and jollity go hand in hand.
~ William Hogarth, in Hogarth Illustrated, vol. iii (1798). Remarks on Various Prints, Written by Hogarth. V. Beer Street and Gin Lane

In Gine Lane, every circumstance of its horrid effects is brought to view in terrorem. Idleness, poverty, misery, and distress, which drives even to madness and death, are the only objects that are to be seen.
~ William Hogarth, in Hogarth Illustrated, vol. iii (1798). Remarks on Various Prints, Written by Hogarth. V. Beer Street and Gin Lane

So let's sink another drink
'Cause it'll give me time to think.
~ Billy Idol, in Don't Stop (1981 album). Dancing With Myself

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkeness expands, unites, and says yes. ... Not through mere perversity do men run after it.
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Lectures XVI and XVII: Mysticism

But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push 'n' you'll be smilin'.
~ Billy Joel, in Piano Man (1973 album). Captain Jack

Drank a lot of take home pay.
~ Billy Joel, in An Innocent Man (1983 album). Keeping The Faith

I was amazed by the way all of that played out in the media. To me, a musician going to rehab is like a normal person going to get his teeth cleaned. Don't these people ever watch "Behind the Music"? It's a cliche. If I had known that the story was going to be reported in the way that it was, I would have considered not going at all.
~ Billy Joel, The New York Times Magazine (15 September 2002). The Stranger

There's an old man sitting next to me
Making love to his tonic and gin.
~ Billy Joel, in Piano Man (1973 album). Piano Man

You've got yoga honey
I've got beer
You got overpriced
And I got weird.
~ Billy Joel, in The Nylon Curtain (1982 album). A Room Of Our Own

Ice cubes likely sell more alcohol for the distilling industry than attractive models in cheesecake poses. The inconspicuous ice cubes often hide the invisible sell -- invisible, that is, to the conscious mind.
~ Wilson Bryan Key, Subliminal Seduction: Ad Media's Manipulation of a Not So Innocent America (1974).

I really like a good view outside, but I need a drink to go with it.
~ Willem Kloos

I liked starting because you got three days to drink and one day to recover. Relieving you had to pick your spots.
~ Bill "The Spaceman" Lee, quoted in The Spaceman Cometh: Has It Been 20 Years Since Bill Lee Retired From Baseball? (June 2002).

You're not a bad fellow, but you won't drink. Sobriety disturbs conversation.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915).

No little boy or girl should ever drink run or whiskey, unless they want to become drunkards. Men who drink are glad to have any excuse for doing it. ... and the man who uses it, becomes a sot. Then he is seen tottering through the streets, a shame to himself and to all his family. And oh, how dreadful to die a drunkard.
~ William Holmes McGuffey, The Eclectic First Reader: For Young Children (1836). Lesson 62: Don't Take Strong Drink

I drink to the days that are!
~ William Morris, from News from Nowhere (1890). XVI. Dinner in the Hall of the Bloomsbury Market

I'm drinking doubles now that you're running around single again.
~ Willie Nelson

My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down -- but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let's all have another round.
~ Willie Nelson

Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and waste a lifetime!
~ Bill Owen

[Drunkenness] spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous, and mad.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Temperance

In fine, he that is drunk is not a Man: Because he is so long void of Reason, that distinguishes a Man from a Beast.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Temperance

Strong Liquors are good at some Times, and in small Proportions; being better for Physick than Food, for Cordials than common Use.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Temperance

In college one time after a game I drank 48 cans of beer. Wasn't nothing. Just having a nice time.
~ William ("The Refrigerator") Perry, Sports Illustrated magazine (4 November 1985). Monster Of The Midway

I did go through a couple of rehabilitation things, which helped a great deal with drinking and stuff like that. I'm feeling great now. I feel like a brand new man.
~ Wilson Pickett, The Edmonton Sun (11 August 2000). 'Wicked Pickett' is a new man

When her guests were awash with champagne and with gin,
She was recklessly sober, as sharp as a pin.
An abstemious man would reel at her look,
As she rolled a bright eye and praised his last book.
~ William Charles Franklyn Plomer, from The Dorking Thigh and Other Satires (1945). Slightly Foxed: or, The Widower of Bayswater

I'd give a pot of beer to live again.
~ William B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso (1810). Act I, scene iv

Always drink upstream from the herd.
~ Will Rogers

The South is dry and will vote dry. That is, everybody sober enough to stagger to the polls will.
~ Will Rogers, (1926)

So long as any man drinks when he wants to and stops when he wants to, he isn't a drunkard, no matter how much he drinks or how often he falls under the table.
~ William Buehler Seabrook, Asylum (1935).

Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene iii

Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd,
With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd:
Cup us, till the world go round.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act II, scene vii

Drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will be swine drunk, and in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bedclothes about him.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well

Fill the cup, and let it come;
I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act V, scene iii

Give me a bowl of wine.
In this I bury all unkindness.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act IV, scene iii

Good wine needs no bush.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Epilogue

I do now remember the poor creature, small beer.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act II, scene ii

I drink to the general joy o' the whole table.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

I have drunk, and seen the spider.
~ William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking; I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene iii

I laughed him out of patience; and that night
I laughed him into patience: and next morn,
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act II, scene v

[I]t provokes the desire, but it takes
away the performance: therefore, much drink
may be said to be an equivocator with lechery.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act II, scene iii

Like a drowned man, a fool and a mad man: one
draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads
him; and a third drowns him.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act I, scene v

O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains; that we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene iii

We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act I, scene i

What is the definition of a good wine? It should start and end with a smile.
~ William Sokolin

He yearned for a drink.
~ William Styron, Lie Down in Darkness (1951).

Whiskey is all right in its place -- but its place is hell.
~ William A. "Billy" Sunday

Temperance, that virtue without pride, and fortune without envy, that gives indolence of body, and tranquillity of mindf; the best guardian of youth, and support of old age.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, from Miscellanea, Part I (1680). An Essay Upon the Cure of the Gout by Moxa (18 June 1677)

The first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet

I drink it as the Fates ordain it.
Come, fill it, and have done with rhymes;
Fill up the lonely glass, and drain it
In memory of dear old times.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, in Punch (17 February 1849). The Ballad of Bouillabaisse

And must I wholly banish hence
These red and golden juices,
And pay my vows to Abstinence,
That pallidest of Muses?
~ William Watson, from New Poems (1909). To a Fair Maiden Who Bade Me Shun Wine

Everybody thinks I drink beer but I actually like cider!
~ Prince William, Interview to the Press Association (30 May 2003).

I get whiskey bent and hell bound.
~ Hank Williams, Jr.

When I'm drinking, it's like waiting for a time bomb to go off. I don't feel in control -- not completely.
~ Robbie Williams

O, fill the wine-cup high!
The sparkling liquor pour;
For we will care and grief defy,
They ne'er shall plague us more.
And ere the snowy foam
From off the wine departs,
The precious draught shall find a home,
A dwelling in our hearts.
~ Robert Folkestone Williams, from Rhymes and Rhapsodies (1833). Bacchanalian Song

After I quit drinking, I realized I am the same asshole I always was; I just have fewer dents in my car.
~ Robin Williams

I like my wine like my women -- ready to pass out.
~ Robin Williams

I'm talkin 'bout a fine white wine ... like Mad Dog 20/20.
~ Robin Williams

A drinking man's someone who wants to forget he isn't still young an' believing.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).

Y'know I think beer is doped? Doped? I think they dope it to create a national tolerance of the TV commercial!
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Period of Adjustment (1960). Act Two

But for every man who drinks others are involved -- the wife who trembles in fear of the next debauch; the mother and father who see their son wasting away.
~ Bill Wilson, The Big Book (1939). Chapter 8: To Wives

My release from the alcohol obsession was immediate. At once I knew I was a free man.
~ Bill Wilson, Letter To Dr. Carl Jung (23 January 1961)

And he cares for nothing! a king is he!
Come on, old fellow, and drink with me!
~ William Winter, from My Witness; a Book of Verse (1871). Orgia: A Song of Ruin

Drink, pretty creature, drink!
~ William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems, Vol. 2 (1800). The Pet Lamb

Temperance is the nurse of chastity.
~ William Wycherley, Love in a wood; or St. James's Park (1672). Act III, scene iii

Wine gives you joy, love grief and tortures; besides the Chirurgeon's Wine makes us witty, Love only Sots: Wine makes us sleep, Love breaks it.
~ William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1673). Act I, scene i

I sat and mused and drank sweet wine.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Crossways (1889). The Madness Of King Goll

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and sigh.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910). A Drinking Song

Come swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.
~ William Butler Yeats, from New Poems (1938). A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety

The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
~ William Butler Yeats