Wine, beer, and spirits quotes - Part 2

Good friends of the Bottle! Good Comrades of Mine,

Stand up and pledge deeply the god of the Vine

Who makes duties vanish, and sad memories fade,

Each amour requited each corking debt paid!

ANONYMOUS--OLD FRENCH POEM

In Wine lies Truth, In Water nought

But Melancholy, dull and sour,

The Apple with old evils fraught,

The Vine Brings Truth and Friendship's hour!

In Wine lies Truth. Its bright rays pass

Open and free from wiles and arts,

The glow of kindness lights the glass,

Men speak the thing that's in their hearts!

ANONYMOUS

By wine we are generous made,

It furnishes fancy with wings;

Without it we ne'er should have had

Philosophers, poets or kings.

ANONYMOUS--OLD DRINKING SONG

In wine, might wine, many comforts I spy;

If you doubt what I say, take a bumper and try!

ANONYMOUS--OLD DRINKING SONG

For of all labors, none transcend

The work that on the brain depend;

Nor could we finish great designs

Without the pow'r of gen'rous wines.

ANONYMOUS--OLD DRINKING SONG

Good wine carrieth a man to heaven.

ANONYMOUS--ANGLO-SAXON SAYING

Drink wine, and you will sleep well. Sleep well and you will not sin. Avoid sin, and you will be saved. Ergo, drink wine and be saved.

ANONYMOUS--MEDIEVAL GERMAN SAYING

Old men's milk...

ANONYMOUS--MEDIEVAL LATIN SAYING

Old wine and old friends are enough provision.

ANONYMOUS--ANDALUSIAN SAYING

With wine and hope, anything is possible.

ANONYMOUS--SPANISH PROVERB

In water one sees one's own face, but in wine one beholds the heart of another.

ANONYMOUS--FRENCH PROVERB

There are more old wine drinkers than old doctors.

ANONYMOUS--GERMAN PROVERB

Take the drink for the thirst that is yet to come.

ANONYMOUS--IRISH PROVERB

Good wine praises itself.

ANONYMOUS--ARABIAN PROVERB

One barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints.

ANONYMOUS--ITALIAN PROVERB

Botticelli isn't a wine, you Juggins! Botticelli's a cheese!

PUNCH

Drink a glass of wine after your soup, and you steal a ruble from the doctor.

ANONYMOUS--RUSSIAN PROVERB

Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart.

AESCHYLUS-GREEK TRAGIC POET VIA AESOP ?

Well can you mouth fair Freedom's classic line.

And talk of Constitutions o'er your wine.

THOMAS CAMPBELL

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.

HENRY ALDRICH--ENGLISH SCHOLAR; DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD

It behooves the wise traveler to eat the food of the country and drink its wine. and

Apart from its elusive bouquet and complex aroma, a great wine presents to the eye joy of colour, and through the sense of touch, flatters the palate and throat, not only with a freshing sense of coolness and grateful feeling of satisfaction...but with the incomparable softness of its velvety texture.

H. WARNER ALLEN--ENGLISH WINE EXPERT/HISTORIAN

I hang no ivie out to sell my wine;

The nectar of good wine sells itself

ROBERT ALOT-ENGLISH POETRY EDITOR

Wine is a chemical symphony. and

The Aesthetic differentiation of Chesapeake Bay oysters and Olympia oysters occurs only after we can really differentiate them. This differentiation cannot occur until we are thoroughly familiar with both. The same is true with wines.

MAYNARD A. AMERINE--FORMER PROFESSOR OF ENOLOGY AND VITICULTURE, U OF C-DAVIS; CONNOISSEUR

For when we quaff the gen'rous bowl,

Then sleep the sorrows of our soul.

Let us drink the juice divine,

The gift of Bacchus, god of wine.

When I take wine, my cares go to rest.

ANACREON--GREEK LYRIC POET

What I wouldn't give for a bottle of wine?

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN-GERMAN COMPOSER

Flow wine, smile woman, and the universe is consoled.

PIERRE JEAN de BERANGER--FRENCH LYRIC POET

If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame.

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS--ITALIAN RELIGIOUS AND SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHER

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. and

When men drink wine they are rich, they are busy, they push lawsuits, they are happy, they are friends.

ARISTOPHANES--GREEK DRAMATIST

Thirst comes with drinking when the wine is good.

EMILE AUGIER--FRENCH POET AND DRAMATIST

A man who was fond of wine was offered some grapes at dessert after dinner. "Much obliged," he said, pushing the plate aside. "I am not accustomed to taking my wine in pills." and

The discovery of wine is of greater moment that the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars. and

Wine, the most pleasant of drinks, whether we owe it to Noah who planted the vine, or whether it is due to Bacchus, who squeezed the juice out of the grape, dates from the infancy of the world. and

A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.

ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN--FRENCH POLITICIAN, MAGISTRATE AND WRITER ON GASTRONOMY

Wine is the most noble and beneficial of alcoholic drinks. Wine is for the sedentary whose work is thinking. Natural wines have been used without drunkenness by the millions of human beings for ages. They supply with iron, tannin and vitamins.

ARTHUR BRISBANE--AMERICAN EDITOR AND WRITER

after his government had raised the price of vodka "so you could reduce drinking." he added: "People should drink wine more. It's much better for you."

NIKOLAI BULGANIN--FORMER PREMIER OF U.S.S.R.

But, thanks to wine-lees and democracy,

We've still our stage where truth calls spade a spade! Aristophanes' Apology

ROBERT BROWNING

If I ever reach an age when my chief entertainment is remembrance of things past, I shall think very often about wine.

NIGEL BUXTON--BRITISH TRAVEL WRITER ("PENGUIN GUIDE TO EUROPE")

Sweet is the vintage, when the showering grapes

In Bacchanal reel to earth

Purple and gushing. and

Champagne with foaming whirls

As white as Cleopatra's melted pearls. and

Fill high the cup with Samian wine! and

Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels. and

Long life to the grap, for when summer is flown,

The age of our nectar shall gladden our own. and

Glory, the grape, love, gold--in these are sunk

The hopes of all men and of every nation. and

Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach

Who please, the more because they preach in vain--

Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter.

Sermons and soda-water the day after. and

Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil,

And Fear her danger; opens a new world

when this, the present fails.

LORD BYRON (GEORGE GORDON)--ENGLISH POET

Wine is one of the most pleasant things in the world.

ANNA BOZZA CAMERANA--VENETIAN COUNTESS

Men who have communion in nothing else can sympathetically eat together, can still rise into some glow of brotherhood over food and wine.

THOMAS CARLYLE--SCOTTISH ESSAYIST AND HISTORIAN

I liked wine, both red and white, and especially Champagne; and on very special occasions I could even drink a small glass of brandy. and

Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. and

"Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink".

--LADY ASTOR to WINSTON CHURCHILL

"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it".

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL--BRITISH STATESMAN, PRIME MINISTER AND AUTHOR

Wine makes old wives wenches.

JOHN CLARCK--ENGLISH AMERICAN CLERGYMAN, PHYSICIAN AND CO-FOUNDER OF RHODE ISLAND

Wine has been to me a firm friend and wise counselor. Often...wine has shown me matters in their true perspective, and has, as though by the touch of a magic wand, reduced great disasters to small inconveniences.

ALFRED DUFF COPPER (LORD NORWICH)--BRITISH STATESMAN

Fill the bowl with rosy wine, around our temples roses twine,

And let us cheerfully awhile, like wine and roses, smile.

ABRAHAM COWLEY--ENGLISH POET

Wine, like the rising sun, possession gains,

And drives the mist of dullness from the brains,

The gloomy vapor from the spirit flies,

And views of gaiety and gladness rise.

GEORGE CRABBE--ENGLISH POET

Our nature here is not unlike our wine;

Some sort when old continue brisk and fine.

SIR JOHN DENHAM--ENGLISH POET

Champagne is one of the elegant extras in life. and

Fan the flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship, and pass the rosy wine. and

I cannot, with such perception as I have of what is reasonable, go along with those excellent persons in confounding the use of anything with its abuse, or in denying any man the cheerful enjoyment of a glass of wine, or beer or spirits and water, because his neighbor is prone to make a beast of himself by irrational excess in those things.

CHARLES DICKENS

Old books, old wine, old Nankin blue;--

All things, in short, to which belong

The charm, the grace that Time

makes strong,

All these I prize, but (entre nous)

Old friends are best!

HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON--ENGLISH POET AND MAN OF LETTERS

One cannot imagine a wine drinker in solitude...

The real amateur of wine can only enjoy it along with friends, sharing with them the art of conversation and the art of drinking. Wine is indeed essentially a sign of civilization, a factor of sociability, friendship.

JEAN DRAPEAU--MAYOR OF MONTREAL

Wine is the intellectual part of a meal, meats are merely the material part.

ALEXANDRE DUMAS (PERE)--FRENCH NOVELIST AND DRAMATIST

I think wealth has lost much of its value if it have not wine. I abstain from wine only on account of the expense. When I heard that Mr. Sturgis had given up wine, I had the same regret that I had lately in hearing that Mr. Bowditch had broken his hip... and

Wine, which Music is--

Music and Wine are one. and

A man will be eloquent, if you give him good wine.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON--AMERICAN ESSAYIST

Fish without wine is like egg without salt.

AUGUSTE ESCOFFIER--FAMOUS PARISIAN CHEF

When I demanded of my friend what viands he preferred, He quoth: "A large cold bottle and a small hot bird." and

There is a glorious candor in an honest quart of wine,

A certain inspitation which I cannot well define.

EUGENE FIELD, AMERICAN POET

Penicillin cures, but your wine makes people happy.

SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING, BRITISH BACTERIOLOGIST, CO-DEVELOPER OF PENICILLIN

Wine works the heart up, wakes the wit;

There is no cure 'gainst age but it. and

'Tis late and cold, stir up the fire;

Sit close and draw the table nigher;

Be merry and drink wine that is old,

A hearty medicine 'gainst the cold.

JOHN FLETCHER, ENGLISH POET

We hear of the conversation of water into wine at the marriage, in Cana, as a miracle. But this conversation is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain, which descends form Heaven upon our vineyards, and which enters into the vine-roots to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. The miracle in question was only performed to hasten the operation, under circumstance of necessity, which required it.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, AMERICAN STATESMAN, SCIENTIST, INVENTOR, AND WRITER

If, as and when we become a nation of wine drinkers, we will be a healthier and a happier people. and

The slowly unfolding story of wine and food contains the saga of human culture, good manners and well being and

It is axiomatic that good wine and good food go hand in hand.

CROSBY GIAGE, AMERICAN THEATRICAL PRODUCER AND WRITER

(Wine is) the nurse of old age.

GALEN, GREEK PHYSICIAN

Old wine is a true panacea

For ev'ry conceivable ill.

SIR WM. S. GILBERT

Wine rejoices the heart of man,

And joy is the Mother of all virtue.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, GERMAN POET

I love everything that's old: old friends, Old times, old manners, old books, old wine.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH, ENGLISH POET, PLAYWRIGHT AND NOVELIST

The only friends who are free from cares are the goblet of wine and a book. Give me wine...that I may for a time forget the cares of the world.

HAFIZ (SHAMS UN-DIN MOHAMMED), PERSIAN LYRIC POET

Conversion of the endurable, unfermented juice of the grapes into the long-lived, stimulating and nourishing beverages we know as wine, is a process in the marginal area that borders on the miraculous. and

Like the charms of a beautiful woman, wine disdains clinical appraisal, the while it provokes ecstatic adoration. and

Good wine is of the substance of life itself and its be-all and end-all is indeed the precincts of the metaphysical.

PHIL TOWNSEND HANNA, AMERICAN EDITOR AND WRITER

Five qualities there are wine's praise advancing;

Strong, beautiful, fragrant, cool and dancing.

SIR JOHN HARINGTON, ENGLISH WRITER

Champagne is music and the dance,

Sherry duplicates romance,

Port's an armchair by the fire,

Burgundy's fulfilled desire.

Muscatel's a summer day.

Claret's everything that's gay,

Sauterne's a secret rendezvous,

Chablis is very entre nous

Take your choice ad fill your glasss,

Drink - and miracles come to pass!

GATES HEBBARD

Well I sup and well I dine,

When I drink my frolic wine.

ROBERT HERRICK, ENGLISH POET

Wine give strenght to weary men. and

And wine can of their wits the wise beguile.

Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile. and

Let those who drink not, but austerely dine,

Dry up in law; the muses smell of wine. and

No poem was ever written by a drinker of water. and

Bacchus opens the gate of the heart. and

Might to inspire new hopes and powerful

To drown the bitterness of cares.

HOMER, GREEK EPIC POET

Comrades, pour the wine tonight,

For the parting is with dawn;

Oh, the clink of cups together,

With the daylight coming on!

RICHARD HOVEY, AMERICAN POET

Wine whets the wit, improves its native source,

And adds a brighter flavor to discourse,

Good wine makes good blood,

Good blood causeth good humours,

Good humours causeth good thoughts

Good thoughts bring forth good works,

Good works carry a man to heaven,

THEREFORE,

Good wine carrieth a man to Heaven.

JAMES HOWELL, ENGLISH WRITER

Although there are people who do not care for it, and who think it no more than a nuisance that a wine list has so many names on it, the whole reason that wine is worth study is its variety.

HUGH JOHNSON, ENGLISH WRITER AND WINE EXPERT

Wine gives great pleasure, and every pleasure is of itself a good. and

A man should cultivate his mind so as to have that confidence and readiness without wine, which wine gives.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, ENGLISH LEXICOGRAPHER, CRITIC AND CONVERSATIONALIST

(Wine is) the milk of Venus.

BEN JOHNSON, ENGLISH PLAYRIGHT AND POET

Wine has a tradition of bridging the generation gap. and

Early and wise introduction to wine within the network of the family may help the young to appreciate that they can obtain and share real pleasures within the scope of family life.

ROBERT KASTENBAUM, PhD, HEALTH PROFESSOR

What man can pretend to be a believer in Love, who is an abjurer of wine. and

O, for a draught of vintage that hath been

Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country green,

Dance and Provencal sond, and sunburnt mirth!

O, for a beaker full of the warm South,

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

And purple-stained mouth. and

If you could make some wine like Claret, to drink on summer evenings in an about! For really 'tis so fine. It fills one's mouth with a gushing freshness, then goes down cool and feverlesss; then you do not feel it quarreling with your liver, No, 'tis rather a peacemaker, and lies as quiet as it did in the grape.

JOHN KEATS, ENGLISH POET

All wines are by their very nature full of reminiscence, the golden tears and red blood of summers that are gone.

RICHARD LE GALLIENNE, ENGLISH WRITER

Lewis celebrated his 105th birthday with a glass of wine, saying: "The doctors say wine is good for your health, and I think I'm old enough to confirm their opinions."

LARRY LEWIS, SAN FRANCISCO CENTENARIAN, MAGICIAN, ATHLETE AND BANQUET WAITER, WHO LIVED A VERY ACTIVE LIFE ALMOST TO HIS DEATH AT 106

When it comes to wine, I tell people to throw away vintage charts out the window and invest in a corkscrew. The best way to learn about wine is in the drinking.

ALEXIS LICHINE, WINE IMPORTER, EXPORTER & WRITER/ENCYCLOPEDIST

This song of mine

Is a song of the vine

To be sung by the glowing embers

Of wayside inns,

When the rain begins

To darken the drear Novembers. and

For the richest and best

Is the wind of the West

That grows by the Beautiful River;

Whose sweet perfume

Fills all the room

With a bension on the giver. and

When you ask one friend to dine,

Give hime your best wine!

When you ask two,

The second best will do.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, AMERICAN POET

Among the dietary beverages used by man through the centuries, the next in importance to milk has been wine. and

Wine was born, not invented. and

like any old friend, it continued to surprise us in new and unexpected ways.

DR SALVATORE LUCIA

what find you better or more honorable than age. Take the pre-eminence of it in everything, in an old friend, in old wine, in old pedigree.

SHACKERLEY MARMION, ENGLISH DRAMATIST

I hope that I am as broadminded as others, and you have always seen a decanter of wine on the table.

JOHN P. MARQUAND, AMERICAN WRITER

A jar of wine so priceless did not deserve to die. and

Never think of leaving perfume or wines to your heir. Administer these youself and let him have the money.

MARTIAL, LATIN POET

Do you remember any great poet that ever illustrated the higher fields of humanity that did not dignify the use of wine from Homer on down?

JAMES A. MCDOUGALL, US SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA

Now a little glass of wine is the best way to start a meal. With the soup you sip a little sherry. Then a glass of white wine with the fish. A glass of light red with the beef. Then port with a dessert.

LAURITZ MELCHIOR, DANISH OPERATIC TENOR

Note the superiority of wine over Venus! I may say the magnamimity of wine; our jeleaousy turns on him that will not share. and

A house with a great wine stored below lives in our imagination as a joyful house, fast and splendidly rooted in the soil.

GEORGE MEREDITH, ENGLISH WRITER

I feast on wine and bread, and feasts they are.

MICHELANGELO, ITALIAN PAINTER AND SCUPLTOR

Wine, the cheerer of the heart and lively refresher of the countenance.

THOMAS MIDDLETON, ENGLISH DRAMATIST

A good party is where you enjoy good people, and they taste even better with Champagne.

WILSON MIZNER, AMERICAN WRITER AND COMMENTATOR ON SOCIETY

Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best, and he answered as I would have done when he said, "Somebody else's."

MONTAIGNE, FRENCH ESSAYIST

Come, send round the wine, and leaves

points of belief

To simpleton sages, and reasoning fools.

 So Life's year begins and closes, Days, though short'ning still can shine;

What though youth gave love and roses,

Age still leaves us friends and wine. and

Say, why did Time his glass sublime

Fill up with sands unsightly,

When wine, he knew, runs briskly through

And sparkles far more brightly. and

If with water you fill up your glasses,

You'll never write anything wise;

For wine the true horse of Parnassus,

Which carries a bard to the skies. and

Twine the roses, the garland twine,

Every leaf distilling wine;

Drink and smile and learn to think

That we were born to smile and drink.

THOMAS MOORE, IRISH POET