“What is man, when you come to think upon him, but a minutely set, ingenious machine for turning, with infinite artfulness, the red wine of Shiraz into urine?”
"The Dreamers"
Seven Gothic Tales (1934)
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Karen Blixen 67
Danish writer 1885–1962Related quotes

“You think it more difficult to turn air into wine than to turn wine into blood?”
On a priest who pantomimes Mass, Monsignor Quixote, PBS TV (February 13, 1987)

Source: The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 5: "The Readiness to Work"

“Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea.”
Knights, line 90-96 (our emphasis on 95-96)
Knights (424 BC)
Context: Demosthenes: Do you dare to accuse wine of clouding the reason? Quote me more marvellous effects than those of wine. Look! when a man drinks, he is rich, everything he touches succeeds, he gains lawsuits, is happy and helps his friends. Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea.
(tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Kn.+90)

“5536. When a Man is set upon his own Ruin, 'tis in vain to reason with him.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“What a strange development of patriotism that turns a thinking being into a loyal machine!”

“The yellow moon turned orange and was soon red as the setting sun.”
Source: Catch-22 (1961), pp. 462