
“Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.”
April 24, 1779, p. 424
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
“Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.”
Novalis (1829)
Context: Man consists in Truth. If he exposes Truth, he exposes himself. If he betrays Truth, he betrays himself. We speak not here of lies, but of acting against Conviction.
I Don't Know One Editor In India Who Is Well-Read
“A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.”
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.
“He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
“When a man has no reason to trust himself, he trusts in luck.”