The Times Great Quotations

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Three glasses of wine drive away the evil spirits, but with the fourth they return.

German proverb

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If all be true that I do think,

There are five reasons we should drink:

Good wine — a friend — or being dry —

Or lest we should be by and by —

Or any other reason why.

Five Reasons for Drinking (1689)

Henry Aldrich, English philosopher and composer (1647–1710)

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We drink one another’s healths, and spoil our own.

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)

Jerome K Jerome, English writer (1859–1927)

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No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home in Weston-super-Mare.

The Times (1994)

[Attr.]

Kingsley Amis, English writer and critic (1922–1995)

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Wine may well be considered the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.

Études sur le vin (1866)

Louis Pasteur, French biologist and chemist (1822–1895)

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One reason why I don’t drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time.

Christian Herald (1960)

Nancy Astor, American-born politician and socialite (1879–1964)

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Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.

Diary (1660)

Samuel Pepys, English diarist, naval administrator and politician (1633–1703)

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Hath wine an oblivious power? Can it pluck out the sting from the brain? The draught might beguile for an hour, But still leaves behind it the pain.

Anonymous

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A well-balanced person has a drink in each hand.

Gullible’s Travels (1982)

Sir Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian (1942–)

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Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.

Pensées (1670)

Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (1623–1662)

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There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink.

Penrod (1914)

Booth Tarkington, American writer and dramatist (1869–1946)

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I only take a drink on two occasions – when I’m thirsty and when I’m not.

Brendan Behan, Irish writer (1923–1964)

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Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)

Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875–1961)

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Then trust me, there’s nothing like drinking

So pleasant on this side the grave;

It keeps the unhappy from thinking,

And makes e’en the valiant more brave.

Nothing like Grog (1841)

Charles Dibdin, British composer (1745–1814)

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Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew.

Nicholas Nickleby (1838)

Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic (1812–1870)

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We are fighting Germany, Austria and drink, and so far as I can see the greatest of these deadly foes is drink.

[Speech at Bangor, 1915]

David Lloyd George, prime minister of the UK (1863–1945)

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I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s the best they are going to feel all day.

Dean Martin, American singer and actor (1917–1995)

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One whisky is all right; two is too much; three is too few.

A Taste of Scotch (1989)

Derek Cooper, British journalist and broadcaster (1925–2014)

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Come quickly, I am tasting stars!

[On discovering he had created champagne]

Dom Perignon, French Benedictine monk (1638–1715)

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An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do.

Dylan Thomas, Welsh writer (1914–1953)

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To eat figs off the tree in the very early morning, when they have been barely touched by the sun, is one of the exquisite pleasures of the Mediterranean.

Italian Food (1954)

Elizabeth David, British cookery writer (1913–1992)

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Great eaters of meat are in general more cruel and ferocious than other men. The English are known for their cruelty.

Émile (1762)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Genevan philosopher (1712–1778)

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Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

Metropolitan Life (1978)

Fran Lebowitz, American writer and public speaker (1950–)

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A cheerful look makes a dish a feast.

Jacula Prudentum (1640)

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

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Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.

[Inaugural address, 1881]

James A Garfield, 20th president of the US (1831–1881)

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I saw him even now going the way of all flesh, that is to say towards the kitchen.

Westward Hoe (1607)

John Webster, English dramatist (c. 1580–1634)

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Coffee is a cold dry food, suited to the ascetic life and sedative of lust.

Katib Chelebi, Ottoman scholar (1609–1657)

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All my life I have been a very thirsty person.

The Sunday Times (2001)

Keith Floyd, British cook, restaurateur and television personality (1943–2009)

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The noblest of all dogs is the hot-dog; it feeds the hand that bites it.

Quotations for Our Time (1977)

Laurence J Peter, Canadian educator (1919–1990)

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Good mashed potato is one of the great luxuries of life and I don’t blame Elvis for eating it every night for the last year of his life.

In Praise of the Potato (1989)

Lindsey Bareham, British cookery writer

Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter.

Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, admiral of the Royal Navy (1748–1810)

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We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility.

Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist (1879–1955)

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Come, my friends. ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Ulysses (1833)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English poet (1809–1892)

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One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.

Les faux-monnayeurs (1925)

André Gide, French writer (1869–1951)

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A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer (1900–1944)

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Nurture your minds with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.

Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister of the UK (1804–1881)

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We are not creatures of circumstance; we are creators of circumstance.

Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister of the UK (1804–1881)

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There comes a time in a man’s life when to get where he has to go — if there are no doors or windows — he walks through a wall.

Rembrandt’s Hat (1972)

Bernard Malamud, American writer (1914–1986)

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