Quotes about drinking
page 9

A.A. Milne photo
Dennis Skinner photo

“I bet he drinks Carling Black Label..”

Dennis Skinner (1932) British politician

A reference to an advertising campaign at the time http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/416382.stm BBC 1991
1990s

Benjamin Franklin photo

“Has not the famous political Fable of the Snake, with two Heads and one Body, some useful Instruction contained in it? She was going to a Brook to drink, and in her Way was to pass thro’ a Hedge, a Twig of which opposed her direct Course; one Head chose to go on the right side of the Twig, the other on the left, so that time was spent in the Contest, and, before the Decision was completed, the poor Snake died with thirst.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Queries and Remarks Respecting Alterations in the Constitution of Pennsylvania reported in Albert H. Smyth, ed., The Writings of Benjamin Franklin (1907), vol. 10, pp. 57–58.
Decade unclear

Charles Stuart Calverley photo
Sukarno photo
Jim Risch photo

“Some one wrote to me upon the publication of my book two years ago: “But you live in England! Poor man: then you are a preacher in the desert!” So I am. But I owe something to my desert. The desert is an excellent place for anybody who can make use of it, as biblical and post-biblical experience proves. Without my desert I should not have written my book. Without coming to England I should have become a modern creature, going in for money and motor-cars. For I was born with a fatal inclination for such lighter and brighter kind of things. I was born under a lucky star, so to say: I was born with a warm heart and a happy disposition; I was born to play a good figure in one of those delightful fêtes champêtres of Watteau, Lancret, and Boucher, with a nice little shepherdess on my arm, listening to the sweet music of Rossini and drinking the inspiring “Capri bianco” or “Verona soave” of that beautiful country Italy. But the sky over here is not blue—nor grows there any wine in England—and no Rossini ever lived here; and towards the native shepherdesses I adopted the ways of the Christian towards his beautiful ideals: I admired them intensely but kept myself afar. So there was nothing to console your thirsty and disenchanted traveller in the British Sahara. In the depths of his despair, there was sent to him, as to the traveller in the desert, an enchanting vision, a beautiful fata Morgana rising on the horizon of the future, a fertile and promising Canaan of a new creed that had arisen in Germany (there too as a revulsion against the desert): the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
So I owe something to the desert. Had I not wandered there so long, I could never have fervently wished to escape nor finally succeeded in coming out of it.”

Oscar Levy (1867–1946) German physician and writer

Preface, pp. xii-xiii.
The Revival of Aristocracy (1906)

George Herbert photo

“Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame,
When once it is within thee.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

The Temple (1633), The Church Porch

John Green photo
Ron White photo
Hafizullah Amin photo

“You are the one who should quit! Because of drink and old age you have taken leave of your senses.”

Hafizullah Amin (1929–1979) politician, former Afghan head of state (1979)

Amin on Nur Muhammad Taraki, as quoted in Nabi Misdaq (2006) Afghanistan: Political Frailty and External Interference, page 125

Thom Yorke photo
Oscar Levant photo

“I don't drink liquor. I don't like it. It makes me feel good.”

Oscar Levant (1906–1972) American comedian, composer, pianist and actor

As quoted in Time magazine (5 May 1958).

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Jimmy Buffett photo
Robert Louis Stevenson photo
Francois Rabelais photo

“I drink no more than a sponge.”

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 5.

David Dixon Porter photo

“It looked queer to me to see boxes labeled 'His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America'. The packages so labeled contained Bass ale or Cognac brandy, which cost 'His Excellency' less than we Yankees had to pay for it. Think of the President drinking imported liquors while his soldiers were living on pop-corn and water!”

David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) United States Navy admiral

David D. Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War https://ia802604.us.archive.org/9/items/incidentsanecdot00port/incidentsanecdot00port.pdf (1885), p. 274.
1880s, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885)

Torquato Tasso photo

“So we, if children young diseased we find,
Anoint with sweets the vessel's foremost parts
To make them taste the potions sharp we give;
They drink deceived, and so deceived, they live.”

Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet

Cosi all' egro fanciul porgiamo aspersi
Di soave licor gli orli del vaso;
Succhi ainari, ingannato, in tanto ei bene,
E da l'inganno iuo, vita ricere.
Canto I, stanza 3 (tr. Edward Fairfax)
Anthony Esolen's translation:
As we brush with honey the brim of a cup, to fool
a feverish child to take his medicine:
he drinks the bitter juice and cannot tell—
but it is a mistake that makes him well.
Compare:
Sed vel uti pueris absinthia taetra medentes / cum dare conantur, prius oras pocula circum / contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore, / ut puerorum aetas inprovida ludificetur / labrorum tenus, interea perpotet amarum / absinthi laticem deceptaque non capiatur, / sed potius tali facto recreata valescat.
When a doctor is trying to give unpleasant medicine to a child, he smears the rim of the cup with honey. And the child, not suspecting any trick, tastes it; and at first he is misled by the sweetness on his lips into swallowing it, however sour it is. But even though he is deceived, he is not distraught; and soon enough he gets better and regains his strength.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Book I, lines 936–942 (tr. G. B. Cobbold)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

Derren Brown photo

“Maybe because I had been out very late the night before and was not able to put up my usual resistance, but it seemed to me, sitting there with the sound of his voice dying in my ears, that I could fall in love with him.
And then, as unexpected as a hidden step, I felt myself actually stumble and fall. And there it was, I was in love with him! As simple as that.
He was the first real person I’d ever been in love with. I couldn’t get over it. What I was trying to figure out was why I had never been in love with him before. I mean I’d had plenty of chance to. I’d seen him almost daily that summer in Maine two years ago when we were both in a Summer Stock company. … He was always rather nice to me in his insolent way, but there was also, I now remembered with a passing pang, an utterly ravishing girl, a model, the absolute epitome of glamour, called Lila. She used to come up at week ends to see him.
Then I heard from someone that he’d quit college the next winter and gone abroad to become a genius. I’d met him again when I first landed in Paris. He’d been very nice, bought me a drink, taken down my telephone number and never called me.
You’re a dead duck now, I told myself, as I relaxed back into my coma. You’re gone. I looked at him, smiling idly. I tried to imagine what was going on in his mind.”

Elaine Dundy (1921–2008) American journalist, actress

Part One, One
The Dud Avocado (1958)

Thomas Jackson photo

“I like liquor — its taste and its effects — and that is just the reason why I never drink it.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

As quoted in Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1874) by John William Jones, p. 171

Kent Hovind photo
Psy photo

“I’m drinking. It’s my biggest hobby.”

Psy (1977) South Korean singer

When asked "What do you do when you’re not performing?".
Ibid.

Richard Nixon photo

“I’ve just recognized that, you know, all people have certain traits. … The Jews have certain traits. The Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish. … The Italians, of course, those people course don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but …The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Conversation with Charles W. Colson, Feb. 13, 1973 http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/national/20101211_NIXON_AUDIO/2_TYPES.mp3, as quoted in "In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/us/politics/11nixon.html, by Adam Nagourney, New York Times (10 December 2010)
1970s

Jack Vidgen photo

“I like to drink hot honey in water, I like to be very calm before going onstage, I don't talk at all before hand unless I'm doing warm-ups.”

Jack Vidgen (1997) Australian singer

On how he prepares before a performance; TG chats to Jack Vidgen! http://www.totalgirl.com.au/entertainment/entertainment-article.asp?ArticleID=4682, August 2012.

Ryan Adams photo

“I quit drinking every night, at 1:30 A. M.”

Ryan Adams (1974) American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter

Spin (February 2006)

Charles Barkley photo
Joey Comeau photo
Alex Jones photo

“Bernie wants us to live under the heavenly socialist–communist system like China. We never hear the left criticize that Mao Tse-Tung killed over 80 million people—the Chinese government admits—biggest mass murder in history. That's why there's so many liberal trendy places in Austin, in Denver, in New York, in LA, and San Francisco named after Mao. And people go and love play on their iPhones and the free market and their Chinese slave goods, and they drink beer and expensive wine and giggle about how fun it is to wear red stars. You couldn't put more bad luck on you, you couldn't trash your mojo better. Wearing swastika armbands, you stupid snot-nosed crud! That live off the backs of everybody that fought Nazism and Communism. You need to have your jaws broken! Don't you worry, reality is gonna crash in on you, trash! Who lowered our defenses and brought the Republic down; oh, we're already gone! And you celebrate it like you've joined the globalists mounting America's head on the wall, your great victory! A mass rape of women across Europe. The national draft coming in for women! The families falling apart! Women degraded into nothing but sexual objects! ALL in the name of Gloria Steinem and the Central Intelligence Agency program! And a Bernie Sanders with his fake Einstein hair, and his 'I'm a man of the people!' We go out and talk to Bernie Sanders' supporters, they can hardly talk—they're like him—'Free! Free! I want free stuff!' As if the New World Order is gonna give you anything free! Oh, it's free like a piece of cheese. And a little mouse comes out and it smells it and goes to bite it and, WA BAM! Breaks your neck. But your stupider than the little mouse. You can see all the countries and all the people caught in the mouse traps, caught in the big bear traps. You know what you do? You go into a trendy shop. On some capitalist strip. And you go in and you snuggle in with that credit card that daddy put money in for the trust fund. And you put on that little fur-rimmed coat and you're all sexy with your hammer and sickle on, and your Che Guevara and, you know, shirt from Rage Against the Machine, and the whole capitalist record company system selling it to you, and you go out on the street and you walk into McDonald's and you have yourself a double latte, oh yeah. Pathetic! Scum! Oh, how you'll burn in the camps, later. Wishing you had done something; I mean, you are the ultimate chumps, the ultimate buffoons, the ultimate schmucks!… But the public had so much freedom! They were so wealthy, even our poorest, they had no idea that what they were replacing it with was abject slavery.”

Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker

"Sanders Supporters are Pathetic Scum" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooNxJnf_UAI, February 2016

“Drink to me with your eyes alone…. And if you will, take the cup to your lips and fill it with kisses, and give it so to me.”

Philostratus (170) Lucius Flavius Philostratus, Greek sophist of Roman imperial period

XXIV. Quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 801-03.
Letters

Epifanio de los Santos photo
Alicia Witt photo

“The chief reason for drinking is the desire to behave in a certain way, and to be able to blame it on alcohol.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Paul F. Tompkins photo
Dave Attell photo
Rex Stout photo
Richard Lovelace photo

“Here we’ll strip and cool our fire
In cream below, in milk-baths higher;
And when all wells are drawn dry,
I’ll drink a tear out of thine eye.”

Richard Lovelace (1617–1658) English writer and poet

To Amarantha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair (l. 21–24).
Lucasta (1649)

Donald Barthelme photo
Stephen Colbert photo

“Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass, is my point. But I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

White House Correspondents' Association Dinner (2006)

Ernest Hemingway photo

“Only one marriage I regret. I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, "What will you have, sir?"”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

And I said, "A glass of hemlock."
Pt. 2, Ch. 5
Papa Hemingway (1966)

Dylan Moran photo
Denis Leary photo

“That which the learned Jews did with the outward letter of their Law, that same do learned Christians with the outward letter of their gospel. Why did the Jewish church so furiously and obstinately cry out against Christ, Let him be crucified? It was because their letter-learned ears, their worldly spirit and temple-orthodoxy, would not bear to hear of an inward savior, not bear to hear of being born again of his Spirit, of eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, of his dwelling in them, and they in him. To have their Law of ordinances, their temple-pomp sunk into such a fulfilling savior as this, was such enthusiastic jargon to their ears, as forced their sober, rational theology, to call Christ, Beelzebub, his doctrine, blasphemy, and all for the sake of Moses and rabbinic orthodoxy.
Need it now be asked, whether the true Christ of the gospel be less blasphemed, less crucified, by that Christian theology which rejects an inward Christ, a savior living and working in the soul, as its inward light and life, generating his own nature and Spirit in it, as its only redemption, whether that which rejects all this as mystic madness be not that very same old Jewish wisdom sprung up in Christian theology, which said of Christ when teaching these very things, "He is mad, why hear ye him?" Our blessed Lord in a parable sets forth the blind Jews, as saying of himself, "We will not have this man to reign OVER us."”

William Law (1686–1761) English cleric, nonjuror and theological writer

The sober-minded Christian scholar has none of this Jewish blindness, he only says of Christ, we will not have this man to REIGN IN US, and so keeps clear of such mystic absurdity as St. Paul fell into, when he enthusiastically said, "Yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me."
¶ 157 - 158.
An Humble, Earnest and Affectionate Address to the Clergy (1761)

Ben Moody photo

“We'll just drink and go on.”

Ben Moody (1981) American musician

On dealing with nerves about The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where Evanescence was to perform Bring Me To Life.
Music and business

Joseph Strutt photo
Oliver Cromwell photo

“It is not my design to drink or to sleep, but my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader

Words that Cromwell spoke as he was dying and was offered a drink (3 September 1658)

Elliott Smith photo
Thomas Carlyle photo
William Morley Punshon photo
Edsger W. Dijkstra photo
Ron White photo

“To the troops. [Audience cheers as he drinks scotch]”

Ron White (1956) American comedian

Behavioral Problems

Frederick Douglass photo
Ron White photo

“She got convinced in her crazy head that I had sex with this girl in Columbus, Ohio…and I did, and I'll tell you why. When you enter into a monogamous relationship with somebody, you usually do it at a point in the relationship when you're having a lot of sex. So you're willing to sign the papers. "I'll only have sex with you, ever-ever-ever…ever." Well, if that person stops having sex altogether… why, you find yourself in quite a pickle. I'm a pretty good dog, but if you don't pet me every once in awhile, it's hard to keep me under the porch. I'm not as flexible as real dog. And I'll tell you what happened, too. I was in Columbus, Ohio, and I haven't been laid in three months. Three months! You can't go three months without having sex with me. I'll go have sex with somebody else. I know, I've seen me do it. I did a show one night. I came offstage, there's gorgeous woman, maybe 35, 40 years old, long black dress, slit up to her waist, GORGEOUS. Gimme a second. Just…And I walk off stage, she goes, "I thought you were hilarious. I wanna buy you a drink." I'm like, "I can't do that, I'm married." And she says, "I didn't ask if you wanna have sex, big boy. I asked if you wanna have a drink at my place."…Alright. Now, you know of that little guy that sits on your shoulder and reminds you of your prior commitments and your moral fortitude? I didn't hear a peep out of that guy. He hadn't been laid in 3 months either. He was speechless for like 20 minutes then he was like, "Suck her titty!"…"I was gonna!" I was having a 3-way with my conscience. Soon as the whole thing's over, he's back at his post, saying, "That was wrong, mister!" "Hey! 15 minutes ago, you were beating off on my shoulder, monkey boy!"”

Ron White (1956) American comedian

I hate him. He smokes pot. He burned a hole in my other jacket.
They Call Me Tater Salad

Tomas Kalnoky photo
Luigi Cornaro photo
Nathaniel Hawthorne photo

“God will give him blood to drink!”

Source: The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Ch. I : The Old Pyncheon Family

Thomas Love Peacock photo
Jack Osbourne photo

“I took a bottle of pills. I'd been in Europe and I had a lot of absinthe and I was just drinking and drinking, trying to, you know, just shut my body down.”

Jack Osbourne (1985) Son of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne

MTV.com Jack Talks About His Addiction and Recovery

Miranda July photo
Christopher Titus photo
Christopher Titus photo
George William Russell photo
Confucius photo

“The Superior Man has nothing to compete for. But if he must compete, he does it in an archery match, wherein he ascends to his position, bowing in deference. Descending, he drinks (or has [the winner] drink) the ritual cup.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Bowing is a courtesy for the host who invites him as well drinking a cup.
Source: The Analects, Chapter III

Percy Grainger photo

“I do not eat meat, I do not smoke, and I do not drink, and therefore, I do not feel the cold.”

Percy Grainger (1882–1961) Australian composer, arranger and pianist

Asked why he was wearing few clothes in the middle of winter. Quoted in Percy Grainger by John Bird (Currency Press, 1998), p. 253; quoted in Vegetarianism in Australia - 1788 to 1948: A Cultural and Social History by Edgar Crook (Huntingdon Press, 2006), p. 79 https://books.google.it/books?id=weyfYBz_INYC&pg=PA79.

“The sadhu has always ruled the society. We sanyasis have come forward today to purify politics, just as Lord Shiva stepped forward to drink the poison which sprang from the churning of the cosmic oceans.”

Sakshi Maharaj (1956) Indian politician

On the role of sadhus in Indian politics, as quoted in " Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics https://books.google.co.in/books?id=b70nKb-8YuMC&pg=PA78&dq=sakshi+maharaj&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBjgKahUKEwjhz_ySyK3IAhXG26YKHfrkA7c#v=onepage&q=sakshi%20maharaj&f=false" (2003) by Manjari Katju, p. 78.

Hermann Göring photo
Muhammad photo

“Anas reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Allah is pleased with His slave who eats a morsel and praises Allah for it or takes a drink and praises Allah for it."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 1, hadith number 140
Sunni Hadith

Benjamín Netanyahu photo
John Rupert Firth photo
Dylan Moran photo
Alan Moore photo
Robert Murray M'Cheyne photo
Rumi photo
Plautus photo

“Drink! live like the Greeks! eat! gorge!. (translator unknown)”
Bibite ! pergraecamini ! Este ! effercite vos !

Mostellaria, Act I, scene 1, lines 61-62
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)

Stephen King photo

“This book — amber-clear, cool and with a good head — deserves a thoughtful swig even from people who never drink.”

John Wain (1925–1994) British writer

As given in Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988) p. 301

Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo
Phil Brooks photo
Derryn Hinch photo

“You all should feel angry tonight, very angry, because yet again the legal system in this country has let you down. A court has ruled that a man who committed a ghastly crime against a little girl should walk free and unsupervised. The details are distasteful, but you should know. Hans Lester Watt abducted and raped a three-year-old girl. The 42-year-old was drunk when he took the toddler, and assulted her so badly, she needed medical attention. He said it was revenge, to get back at the innocent little girl's grandmother, whom he claimed had insulted his dead mother. Watt was jailed for 11 years. When due for release last year, the Queensland Attorney-General, understandably, applied to have him classified as a dangerous sexual offender. That meant his jail term could be extended, or at least he'd be released with a supervision order. Remember, this was a three-year-old girl. The court refused the request. The judge found the circumstances were "unique" — that Watt was not an unacceptable risk. Well, I agree it was unique — thank God the rape of a three-year-old doesn't happen often in this country. A psychiatrist said the chances of Watt re-offending were low if he did not drink alcohol, moderate if he did drink, and said the best chance of rehabilitation was if he lived in a dry Aboriginal community. The Attorney-General appealed the judge's decision. Well, yesterday, the Supreme Court turned him down, upheld the earlier ruling that let the child rapist walk free — unsupervised. My mantra for years has been "Who's looking after the children?" In my opinion, the Queensland Supreme Court certainly is not — this decision was a travesty.”

Derryn Hinch (1944) New Zealand–Australian media personality

Today Tonight, 24 April 2013.

Phil Brooks photo

“I've come out here tonight to challenge you… challenge you, the WWE Universe, into seeing things my way and to learn how to just say "no." See, because the people who cheer for Jeff Hardy are just slaves to the vices associated with his (with quote fingers) "living in the moment." I feel bad for you, I really do. You walk around almost blind and you wear your prescriptions proudly on your sleeves like they were badges of honor. What was it the doctor told you? 'Just take one… every four hours,' right? Aside from myself, there's not a person in this arena who hasn't abused prescription medication or taken a recreational drug. And I know, trust me, it's hard being straight-edge, it's hard to live a straight-edge lifestyle. It's extremely difficult to be me, but what concerns me now is that none of you realize how much more difficult it is to live the life… that you all live. I'm positive nobody in here takes into account the long-term consequences of alcohol on your liver. (Smattering of cheers from audience) See, and you cheer that. That's nothing to cheer. You drink because it's fun, right? (Audience cheers a little louder) Eventually, it's not gonna be fun anymore when it spirals out of control and its no longer… it's no longer fun. Sooner or later, you're just drinking to feel normal. And then there's the smokers. You know, I don't know what's more disgusting–is watching a smoker pollute his/her lungs with over 4,000 foreign chemicals, or having to listen to the smoker convince themselves that they can quit whenever they want to. It's… it's hard to quit, I know, it takes a very strong person to quit, but an even stronger person never would've started smoking in the first place. (Audience boos and chants "Hardy") I didn't want to come out here and be the bearer of bad news, but let's face facts: chances are pretty slim that any of you here will ever get the monkey off your back. You'll never be able to pry the cigarette from your lips, or find the self-control to pour your drink from your glass, or the self-respect to take the pill out of your mouth. See, it starts, and it can't happen without learning how to say "no" to temptation, and that's why I'm out here. I'm out here to challenge you before it's too late. Please, learn how to say "no" to temptation, learn how to say "no" to your vices, learn how to control yourself.”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

July 24, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

James Boswell photo

“Now, there is a genuine social justice which proceeds not from the principle of equality, but from the principle: Suum cuique — to each his own. It is true that to deprive the workman of his just wage is not only a sin, but a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance. When one hinders social advance by putting barriers in the way of the diligent and the talented, one not only commits a personal injustice, but damages the common good of the whole nation, which always requires a genuine elite of ability and the contribution of extraordinary brainpower in every walk of life. And it would be socially unjust if a few individuals or certain groups had so much material wealth that, in consequence of this concentration of property and income, other classes had to live not only in povery, but in misery. Whoever lives in real abundance has a Christian duty to assist those living in wrechedness. Before we proceed, however, let us affirm that the notion of misery is different from that of poverty. Péguy has already drawn the distinction between pauvreté and misère. To live in misery means to suffer genuine physical privation: to know cold and hunger, to have no proper dwelling, to be dressed in rags, to be unable to secure medical attention. The poor, by contrast, have the necessities of life, but scarcely any more. They can borrow books, no doubt, but cannot buy them; they can hear music on the radio, but cannot afford a ticket to a concert; they cannot indulge in little extras of food and drink, but should, by self-discipline, be able to save a little. The poor have, therefore, the normal material preconditions for happiness — unless plagued by acquisitiveness or even envy, which has become a political force in the same measure as people have lost their faith. The fact that there are happy poor (alongside unhappy rich people) is beside the point. Demagogues know how to stir up terrible and murderous unrest even among the happy poor, as has been demonstrated clearly by the history of the left from Marat to Marx to Lenin to Hitler.”

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909–1999) Austrian noble and political theorist

Pgs 53-54
The Timeless Christian (1969)

George Washington Plunkitt photo
Kevin Barry photo

“Art is a hideously painful business, you know. Pity me! Or at least buy me a drink.”

Kevin Barry (1902–1920) 18 year old medical student and Irish republican, executed by Britain.

Interview with Kevin Barry (c. 2012)

Ed Harcourt photo

“I drink alot of wine when I'am alone.”

Ed Harcourt (1977) British musician

Apple Of My Eye

John F. Kennedy photo

“I want to drink a cup of tea to all those Kennedys who went and all those Kennedys who stayed.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

While visiting his ancestral homestead in Wexford, as quoted in BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/27/newsid_4461000/4461115.stm
1963

Maimónides photo
Democritus photo
William S. Burroughs photo