Wine Quotes =========== Mellowed by champagne and good food he became a different man, and a delightful and amusing companion.” After Clementine once criticized his drinking, he told her, “Always remember, Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.” -- Eric Larson, The Splendid and the Vile "The secret of wine writing is not simply to share opinions, but to give readers the confidence to have their own." -- Giles Kime "I wish I had drunk more Champagne" - John Maynard Keynes on his deathbed. "Let's get something to eat -- I'm thirsty" -- Nick Charles, After the Thin Man, 1934 "Beef on the bone, Beaune with the beef" "Lafite makes the best Lafite, and Latour makes the best Latour" "I rather like bad wine", said Mr. Mountchesney. "One gets so bored with good wine" -- Benjamin Disraeli (novel, Sybil) I think a tax on wine is a tax on the health of our citizens - Thomas Jefferson Water? Never touch the stuff. Fish fuck in it. -- WC Fields Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance - Benjamin Franklin I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food - Leslie Duncan I made wine out of raisins so I wouldn't have to wait for it to age - Steven Wright When I read about the evils of drinking wine, I gave up reading - Rob Hutchison Wine makes a man more pleased with himself, I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others - Samuel Johnson A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world - Louis Pasteur What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch - W C Fields Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil - Lord Byron Wine - the intellectual part of the meal - Alexandre Dumas A house where neither wine nor welcome is served to friends, soon will have none. - Rob Hutchison The world needs water. For every bottle of wine you drink, you contribute to conserving the drinking water reserves - Paul Emil Victor Wine is constant proof that God likes to see us happy - Benjamin Franklin Compromises are for relationships, not for wine - Sir Robert Scott Caywood If a life of wine, women and song becomes too much, give up the singing Where there is no wine there is no love - Euripedes My Grandmother is over 80 and still doesn't need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle - Henny Youngman Wine gives strength to weary men - Homer Wine improves with age. The older I get, The better I like it. In victory you deserve champagne, in defeat you need it - Napoleon A man who does not share his wine with a friend, will soon enough have no need to - Rob Hutchison I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day - Frank Sinatra For a bad night, a mattress of wine - Spanish proverb The Irish believe that fairies are extremely fond of good wine. The proof of the assertion is that in the olden days royalty would leave a keg of wine out for them at night. Sure enough, it was always gone in the morning. - Irish Folklore Be careful to trust a person, who does not like wine - Karl Marx You haven't drunk too much wine if you can still lie on the floor without holding on - Dean Martin Life is too short to drink bad wine Reality is an illusion that occurs due to a lack of Wine Wine is a little like love - When the right one comes along, you'll know it. Madam, I may be drunk. You are ugly. When I awaken in the morning I shall be sober! - Winston Churchill Wherever wine is lacking medicines become necessary - The Talmud Consuming wine in moderation daily will help people to die young as late as possible. - Dr Philip Norrie He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long. - Martin Luther, 1777 When wine enlivens the heart, may friendship surround the table. May friendship, like wine, improve as time advances, And may we always have old wine, old friends, and young cares. God in His goodness sent the grapes, to cheer both great and small; little fools will drink too much, and great fools not at all. - Anonymous Wine is light,held together by water - Galileo One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts - Samuel Johnson If you are old too fast and your mind too slow, drink some wine and it won't show - Unknown Cherish good wines for they are the dream makers of the seeds of your goals - Anonymous It is well to remember that there are five reasons for drinking: the arrival of a friend; one's present or future thirst; the excellence of the wine; or any other reason. I only drink champagne when I'm happy, and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty. - Lily Bollinger A waltz and a glass of wine invite an encore. - Johann Strauss Quickly bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may whet my mind and say something clever. - Aristophanes I have enjoyed great health at a great age because everyday since I can remember I have consumed a bottle of wine except when I have not felt well. Then I have consumed two bottles. - A Bishop of Seville In water one sees one's own face; But in wine one beholds the heart of another. - French proverb Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul, Gives being to our hopes, Bids the coward fight, Drives dull care away, And teaches new means for the accomplishment of our wishes. - Horace 5 B.C. Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the Gods to man. - Plato One not only drinks wine, one smells it, observes it, tastes it, sips it, and one talks about it. - King Edward VII A barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints. - Italian proverb Wine is a friend, wine is a joy; and, like sunshine, wine is the birthright of all. - Andre Simon (1877 - 1970) Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, that I may wet my brain and say something clever. - Aristophanies Wine is bottled poetry. - Robert Louis Stevenson My manner of living is plain, a glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready, and such as will be content to partake of that are always welcome. -- George Washington I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial. - Thomas Jefferson I am drinking the stars! - Dom Perignon, on his first sip of bubbly Champagne Wine to me is passion. It's family and friends.It's warmth of heart and generosity of spirit. Wine is art. It's culture. It's the essence of civilisation and the art of living. - Robert Mondavi You have only so many bottles in your life, never drink a bad one. - Len Evans The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars. - Benjamin Franklin If we sip the wine, we find dreams coming upon us out of the imminent night - D.H. Lawrence, Grapes Wine has been a part of civilized life for some seven thousand years. It is the only beverage that feeds the body, soul and spirit of man and at the same time stimulates the mind... Making good wine is a skill. Fine wine is an art. - Robert Mondavi, This wine is too good for toast - drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste. - Ernest Hemingway Drink a glass of wine after your soup and you steal a ruble from your doctor. - Russian proverb Work is the scourge of the drinking classes - Oscar Wilde Give me a glass that I may see, the splendid Sauvignon in thee, The Riesling grape within your eyes, Your Chardonnay and Pinot skies. Give me a glass that I may see, beyond sweet mediocrity... Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used. Exclaim no more against it. - William Shakespeare Shakespeare -- The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act II, Scene IV, line 9 Quick: I' faith, sweetheart, methinks now you are in an excellent good temperality: your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose; in good truth, la! But, i' faith, you have drunk too much canaries, and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere one can say, What's this? How do you now? The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act II, Scene IV, line 46 Dol: Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you! Since when, I pray you, sir? God's light! with two points on your shoulder? much! The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act IV, Scene III, line 47 Fal: I would you had but the wit: 'twere better than your dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh; but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never none of these demure boys come to any proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards, which some of us should be too but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and delectable shapes; which, deliver'd o'er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice: but the sherris warms it and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme. It illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart, who, great and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them should be, to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack. The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act V, Scene III, line 20 Sil: A cup of wine that's brisk and fine The Life of King Henry the Fifth, Act II, Scene II, line 44 It was excess of wine that set him on; The Life of King Henry the Fifth, Act III, Scene V, line 22 And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine, The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth, Act II, Scene III, line 77 York: Take away his weapon. Fellow, thank God, and the good wine in thy master's way. The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth, Act IV, Scene VI, line 2 Cade: Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London-stone, I charge and command that, of the city's cost, the pissing-conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now, henceforward, it shall be treason for any that calls me other than Lord Mortimer. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third, Act V, Scene III, line 145 I, that was wash'd to death with fulsome wine, The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth, Act I, Scene IV, line 7 As, first, good company, good wine, good welcome The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth, Act I, Scene IV, line 57 Sands: The red wine first must rise Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene I, line 2 Achil. I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night, Coriolanus, Act II, Scene I, line 26 Men: I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't; said to be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning. What I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as you are, I cannot call you Lycurguses, if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say your worships have delivered the matter well when I find the ass in compound with the major part of your syllables; and though I must be content to bear with those that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that tell you have good faces. If you see this in the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known well enough too? What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough too? Coriolanus, Act IV, Scene V, line 2 First Serv: Wine, wine, wine! What service is here! I think our fellows are asleep. [ Exit]. Coriolanus, Act V, Scene I, line 65 With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene II, line 68 Serv: Now I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry! [ Exit] Timon of Athens, Act I, Scene I, line 288 Apem: Ay; to see meat fill knaves and wine heat fools. Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene VII, line 105 Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene VII, line 117 Is weaker than the wine, and mine own tongue Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, Scene XI, line 233 The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen; Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, Scene IX, line 82 Some wine, within there, and our viands! Fortune knows, Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, Scene XIII, line 52 Give me some wine, and let me speak a little. The Tempest, Act II, Scene I, line 130 Seb: Scape being drunk for want of wine. The Tempest, Act II, Scene II, line 34 Ste: He's in his fit now and does not talk after the wisest. He shall taste of my bottle: if he have never drunk wine afore it will go near to remove his fit. If I can recover him, and keep him tame, I will not take too much for him: he shall pay for him that hath him, and that soundly. The Tempest, Act II, Scene II, line 38 Ste: Four legs and two voices; a most delicate monster! His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches, and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague. Come. Amen! I will pour some in thy other mouth. The Tempest, Act II, Scene II, line 54 Ste: The whole butt, man: my cellar is in a rock by the seaside, where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf! how does thine ague? The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I, line 249 Ste: Monster, lay-to your fingers: help to bear this away where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom. Go to; carry this. The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, Scene II, line 31 Quick: Marry, this is the short and the long of it. You have brought her into such a canaries as 'tis wonderful: the best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her to such a canary; yet there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches, I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after gift; smelling so sweetly all musk, and so rushling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant terms; and in such wine and sugar of the best and the fairest, that would have won any woman's heart; and, I warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her. I had myself twenty angels given me this morning; but I defy all angels, in any such sort, as they say, but in the way of honesty: and, I warrant you, they could never get her so much as sip on a cup with the proudest of them all; and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners; but, I warrant you, all is one with her. The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, Scene II, line 33 Ford: [ Aside. ] I think I shall drink in pipe-wine first with him; I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles? The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene V, line 98 Eva: And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack and wine and metheglins, and to drinkings and swearings and starings, pribbles and prabbles? The Comedy of Errors, Act V, Scene I, line 224 Neither disturb'd with the effect of wine, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene I, line 86 And let my liver rather heat with wine The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene II, line 22 Por: Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, set a deep glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket, for, if the devil be within and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do anything, Nerissa, ere I will be married to a sponge. The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene I, line 19 Salar: There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red wine and Rhenish. But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no? As You Like It, Act III, Scene II, line 68 Ros: Good my complexion! dost thou think, though I am caparison'd like a man, I have a doublet and hose in my disposition? One inch of delay more is a South-sea of discovery; I prithee, tell me who is it quickly, and speak apace. I would thou couldst stammer, that thou mightst pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow-mouth'd bottle; either too much at once, or none at all. I prithee, take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may drink thy tidings. As You Like It, Act III, Scene V, line 73 For I am falser than vows made in wine: As You Like It, Act V, Scene IV, line 149 It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women! for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: and I charge you, O men! for the love you bear to women, as I perceive by your simpering none of you hate them, that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not; and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. [ Exeunt. All's Well that Ends Well, Act II, Scene III, line 85 Laf: There's one grape yet. I am sure thy father drunk wine. But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen: I have known thee already. Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene III, line 217 Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft, Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene III, line 183 Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup; Macbeth, Act II, Scene III, line 82 Then, I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full. King Lear, Act III, Scene IV, line 72 Edg: A servingman, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved I deeply, dice dearly, and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind; says suum, mun ha no nonny. Dolphin my boy, my boy; sessa! let him trot by. Othello, the Moor of Venice, Act II, Scene I, line 220 Iago: Blessed fig's end! the wine she drinks is made of grapes; if she had been blessed she would never have loved the Moor; blessed pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst not mark that? Othello, the Moor of Venice, Act II, Scene III, line 51 Iago: Some wine, ho!And let me the canakin clink, clink;And let me the canakin clink: A soldier's a man; A life's but a span;Why then let a soldier drink. Othello, the Moor of Venice, Act II, Scene III, line 226 Cas: I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk! and speak parrot! and squabble, swagger, swear, and discourse fustian with one's own shadow! O thou invisible spirit of wine! if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil! Othello, the Moor of Venice, Act II, Scene III, line 235 Iago: Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it. And, good lieutenant, I think you think I love you. Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine. Fran Lebowitz (1950 - ) Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others. Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784) Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. Robert Fripp Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. Alice May Brock There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall. Colette (1873 - 1954), 'Freedom,' 1908 Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place. Abigail Van Buren (1918 - ), 1978 Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure. Bible, Old Testament We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer tasting them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age. Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832) The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken. Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine. Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), On the Universe Wisdom and spirit of the Universe! Thou soul is the eternity of thought! That giv'st to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion! Not in vain By day or star-light thus from by first dawn Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul, Not with the mean and vulgar works of man, But with high objects, with enduring things, With life and nature, purifying thus The elements of feeling and of thought, And sanctifying, by such discipline Both pain and fear, until we recognize A grandeur in the beatings of the heart. William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) 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. Benjamin Johnson Wine is bottled poetry. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) Wine gives courage and makes men more apt for passion. Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD) A thousand cups of wine do not suffice when true friends meet, but half a sentence is too much when there is no meeting of minds. Chinese proverb The fruits of all our labors have left us as we started. To grow without is not to grow within. Dave Winer Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC) If there is, in fact, a Heaven and a Hell, all we know for sure is that Hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix... Hunter S. Thompson (1939 - ), Generation of Swine Strategy is buying a bottle of fine wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it. Frank Muir There is nothing like good food, good wine, and a bad girl. Fortune cookie I only drink fortified wines during bad weather. Snowstorm, hurricane, tornado--I'm not particular, as long as it's bad. After all, any storm for a Port. Paul S. Winalski The wine seems to be very closed-in and seems to have entered a dumb stage. Sort of a Marcel Meursault. Paul S. Winalski No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap. Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) Education is the process of casting false pearls before real swine. Irwin Edman Religions change; beer and wine remain. Hervey Allen What grape to keep its place in the sun, taught our ancestors to make wine? Cyril Connolly (1903 - 1974) In the mirrorlike relationship between wine and human beings, Zinfandel owned more reflective properties than any other grape; in its infinite mutability, it was capable of expressing almost any philosophical position or psychological function. As a result, its own "true" nature might never be known. David Darlington, from his novel Angels Visits: An Inquiry into the Mystery of Zinfandel Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food. Alfred Hitchcock (1899 - 1980) Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), "Walden," the Conclusion In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward mobile. Hunter S. Thompson (1939 - ) You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse I made a Second Marriage in my house; Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse. For "Is" and "Is-not" though with Rule and Line And "Up-and-down" by Logic I define, Of all that one should care to fathom, I Was never deep in anything but - Wine. from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Translation by Edward Fitzgerald) The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever. Plutarch (46 AD - 120 AD) Despair is vinegar from the wine of hope. Austin O'Malley