A collection of quotes on the topic of alcohol, wine, likeness, drink.
“Beer is made by men, wine by God.”
“You've been nipping at cook's wine!!”
“Give me some more wine, because life is nothing.”
Source: Poems of Fernando Pessoa
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”
His description of wine, as quoted in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957) by Stillman Drake, p. 5
Other quotes
Variant: Light held together by moisture.
“When the wine goes in, strange things come out.”
Act II, sc. v
Wallenstein (1798), Part I - Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini)
“I called the Navab's wine blood,”
Lunatic. 5
पागल (The Lunatic)
Context: I called the Navab's wine blood, the painted whore a corpse, and the king a pauper. I attacked Alexander with insults, and denounced the so-called great souls. The lowly I have raised on the bridge of praise to the seventh heaven. Your learned pandit is my great fool, your heaven my hell, your gold my iron, friend! Your piety my sin. Where you see yourself as brilliant I find you a dolt. Your rise, friend-my decline. That's the way our values are mixed up, friend! Your whole world is a hair to me. Oh yes, friend, I'm moonstruck through and through- moonstruck! That's just the way I am.
“Wine is good, but water is preferable at table.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1938), I Philosophy
“Be careful to trust a person who does not like wine.”
Written in a letter to Francois Lafargue in Bordeaux, 12 November 1866 as published in MECW Volume 42, p. 334. as "That a man who does not love wine will never be good for anything," which was a restating of the phrase wine, women and song that was attributed to Martin Luther at that time.
Source: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1866/letters/66_11_12.htm
Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqrqaPThCmI
Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 54
Quoted by Diogenes Laërtius
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
FitzGerald's first edition (1859)
A book, a woman, and a flask of wine:
The three make heaven for me; it may be thine
Is some sour place of singing cold and bare —
But then, I never said thy heaven was mine.
As translated by Richard Le Gallienne (1897)
Give me a flagon of red wine, a book of verses, a loaf of bread, and a little idleness. If with such store I might sit by thy dear side in some lonely place, I should deem myself happier than a king in his kingdom.
As translated by Justin McCarthy (1888).
The Rubaiyat (1120)
Prelude, Stanza 1.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)
“Wine enters through the mouth,
Love, the eyes.
I raise the glass to my mouth,
I look at you,
I sigh.”
Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, pp. 554-5. https://archive.org/stream/baburnama017152mbp#page/n623/mode/2up/search/dashed Also cited in Harsh Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
FitzGerald's first edition (1859).
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
I ended up walking for two hours, and at the end of it I was crying to myself because I felt so sad.
My Twisted World (2014), Thoughts at 19, Longing
Source: The Food of Love
Source: Zorba the Greek (1946), Ch. 23
“He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long.”
Variant: He who loves not Wine, Women and Song
Remains a fool his whole life long
“We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.”
somos todos mortales hasta el primer beso y el segundo vaso
The Book of Embraces (1991)
That These Words of Christ, 'This is My Body' Still Stand Firm Against the Fanatics, 1527, in Luther's Works, Word and Sacrament III, 1961, Fortress Press, , volume 37, p. 54. http://books.google.com/books?ei=PxdBTeK6F4PogQe9lKizAw&ct=result&id=J-0RAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Nicodemus%2C+joseph%2C+Paul%22&q=%22Still+Stand+Firm+Against+the+Fanatics%22#search_anchor This work appeared in vol. 2 of the Wittenberg ed. of Luther's Works (in German) and was later translated into Latin by Matthew Judex (Matthaeum Iudicem) under the title: Defensio τοῦ ρητοῦ Verborum Cenae: Accipite, Comedite: Hoc est Corpus Meum: Contra Phanaticos Sacramentariorum Spiritus. http://solomon.tcpt.alexanderstreet.com/cgi-bin/asp/philo/cpt/getobject.pl?c.121:1.cpt
Luther's Latin: “Nullus ex patribus, quorum infinitus est numerus, de Sacramento sic loquutus est, ut Sacramentarii. Nam nemo ex iis talibus verbis utitur Tantum panis & vinum est: Vel Corpus & Sanguis Christi non adestProfecto non est credibile, nec possibile cum toties ab iis res ista agatur & repetatur, quod non aliquando, vel semel tantum excidissent haec verba. Est merus Panis, aut, non quod Christi corpus corporaliter adsit, aut his similia, cum tamen multum referat ne homines seducantur, Sed omnes praecise ita loquuntur, quasi nullus dubitet, quin ibi praesto sit corpus & sanguis Christi. Sane ex tot patribus, & tot scriptis, ab aliquibus, vel saltem ab uno potuisset negativa sententia proferri, ut in aliis articulis usitatum & frequens est, si non sensissent, corpus & sanguinem Christi vere inesse. Verum omnes concordes & constantes uno ore affirmatium proferunt.” See Luther's Opera Omnia, Wittenberg ed., (1558), vol., 7, p. 391. http://books.google.com/books?id=jrpjO-K_kQYC&pg=PR10&dq=Accipitae+Hoc+%22corpus+meum%22+luther&hl=en&ei=9iFBTeOqIonbgQeJ4IXmAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=coenae&f=false
"Alchemy"
Rivers to the Sea (1915)
Freedom (1908)
Source: Oeuvres complètes en seize volumes
“Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine”
More Maxims of Mark (1927) edited by Merle Johnson
“My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.”
Source: Notebook
"Love after Love"
Source: "A Far Cry from Africa" (1962), Collected Poems, 1948-1984 (1986)
A Drinking Song http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1399/
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)
“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”
“High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water.”
“I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine.”
“I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.”
She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act I
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield
Le duc imita bientôt avec Bande-au-ciel la petite infamie de son ancien ami et il paria, quoique le vit fût énorme, d'avaler trois bouteilles de vin de sens froid pendant qu'on l'enculerait.
The First Day
The 120 Days of Sodom (1785)
“New weapons require new tactics. Never put new wine into old bottles.”
As quoted in Cavalry from Hoof to Track (2009) by Roman Jarymowycz, Ch. 16 : Cold Warhorse: Pegasus ex Machina
On Bollywood and Television http://www.tellychakkar.com/tv/interviews/television-today-isnt-just-bread-and-butter-also-wine-and-cheese-sukirti-kandpal/
Ich fühle, wie in mir sich wachsend Wort an Wort, Gedanke an Gedanke reiht zum letzten Akt der Schöpfung. Heilige Stunde des Gebärens, Schmerz bist du und Lust und eine Sehnsucht nach Form, Gestalt und Wesen. Ich bin nur Instrument, darauf der alte Gott sein Lied singt. Ich bin nur harrendes Gefäß, in das Natur den neuen Wein mit Lächeln füllt.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
"Montaigne" http://teaching.quotidiana.org/essays/Woolf_Montaigne.html
The Common Reader (1925)
Source: Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001), Ch. 24.
"Tugboat Complex" from the album Labor Days. Archived at " The Original Hip-Hop (Rap) Lyrics Archive http://ohhla.com/anonymous/aesoprck/rm_bside/tugboat.rck.txt," Accessed May 22, 2014.
“I am tipsy after my
own feelings
themselves have become wine.
I forget myself, world and all.”
<span class="plainlinks"> The Tajmahal and my Love http://www.best-poems.net/love_poems/the_taj_mahal_amp_my_love.html/</span>
From Poetry
“The Vinyl Solution.” in Musician, Player, and Listener 24 (April-May 1980): 34.
Elsewhere
“I rather like bad wine," said Mr. Mountchesney; "one gets so bored with good wine.”
Book 1, chapter 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845)
"I am widely regarded as the ghost of a writer," (1977), from New Selected Essays: Where I Live, ed. John S. Bak and John Lahr (New Directions Publishing, 2009)
"Towards Evening My Heart," Poems (1913)
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2014/10/29/wild-heart-turning-white-georg-trakl-and-cocaine/
As quoted in Lin Yutang's The Vermilion Gate (1914)
Of "Inspector Kobold", a spectre
Canto 3, "Scarmoges"
Phantasmagoria (1869)
Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 370-71.
No. 163: On his discovery of Finnish language, in a letter to W. H. Auden (1955)
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
Source: 1950s, Portraits from Memory and Other Essays (1956), p. 9
Spiritual Canticle of The Soul and The Bridegroom
Book the First
Sordello (1840)
Context: But, gathering in its ancient market-place,
Talked group with restless group; and not a face
But wrath made livid, for among them were
Death's staunch purveyors, such as have in care
To feast him. Fear had long since taken root
In every breast, and now these crushed its fruit,
The ripe hate, like a wine: to note the way
It worked while each grew drunk! men grave and grey
Stood, with shut eyelids, rocking to and fro.
Letting the silent luxury trickle slow
About the hollows where a heart should be;
But the young gulped with a delirious glee
Some foretaste of their first debauch in blood
At the fierce news
Bernard, section VIII
The Waves (1931)
Context: We have dined well. The fish, the veal cutlets, the wine have blunted the sharp tooth of egotism. Anxiety is at rest. The vainest of us, Louis perhaps, does not care what people think. Neville’s tortures are at rest. Let others prosper — that is what he thinks. Susan hears the breathing of all her children safe asleep. Sleep, sleep, she murmurs. Rhoda has rocked her ships to shore. Whether they have foundered, whether they have anchored, she cares no longer.
Song, To Celia, lines 1-16; this poem was inspired by "Letter XXIV" of Philostratus, which in translation reads: "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".
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio (1616), The Forest
Context: Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.
And both epithets will be false. After all this, is life worth the trouble? And yet we live - out of curiosity! We expect something new... How absurd, and yet how vexatious!
A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)
“I beg you listen to this advice—
When you can get wine, be sure to drink it.”
Substance, Shadow, and Spirit, "Substance speaks to Shadow" (translation by A. Waley)
In A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1919), 'Poems By Tao Ch'ien', p. 106
Context: Heaven and Earth exist for ever:
Mountains and rivers never change.
But herbs and trees in perpetual rotation
Are renovated and withered by the dews and frosts:
And Man the wise, Man the divine—
Shall he alone escape this law?
Fortuitously appearing for a moment in the World
He suddenly departs, never to return.
How can he know that the friends he has left
Are missing him and thinking of him?
Only the things that he used remain;
They look upon them and their tears flow.
Me no magical arts can save,
Though you may hope for a wizard's aid.
I beg you listen to this advice—
When you can get wine, be sure to drink it.
“Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life. ”
Source: The Rubaiyat (1120)
“Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk.”
https://twitter.com/wise_chimp/status/1488946174321205253?s=21
“Give me wine to wash me clean of the weather-stains of cares”
Source: The King of Attolia
“Beer dulls a memory, brand sets it burning, but wine is the best for a sore heart's yearning.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
Referencing Oscar Wilde from the preface of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"; "All art is quite useless".
1990s, Moab is My Washpot (autobiography, 1997)
Source: Moab Is My Washpot
Context: … but love, like all art, as Oscar said, it's quite useless. It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe but not worth bothering with.
“Wine can be a better teacher than ink, and banter is often better than books”
Source: The Fry Chronicles
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Chapter Six - Pooh.
No. 97
Apophthegms (1624)
Context: Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
“[…] He tasted like snowflakes and wine, like winter and Will and London.”
Source: Clockwork Princess
Source: The Secret
Source: When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism
“But I saw the pain and sadness in everything, and swirled it round my mouth like a fine wine.”
Source: Your Voice in My Head
Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell
“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, sermons and soda water the day after.”
