The labouring poor, in spite of double pay,
Are saucy, mutinous, and beggarly;
So lavish of their money and their time,
That want of forecast is the nation’s crime.
Good drunken company is their delight;
And what they get by day they spend by night.
Dull thinking seldom does their heads engage,
But drink their youth away, and hurry on old age. Daniel Defoe, The True-Born Englishman
A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated has not the art of getting drunk. Samuel Johnson, James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson
Hot livers, and cold purses. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV II v 326, Prince Harry to Russell et al
O, he’s drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone. His eyes were set at eight i’ th’ morning. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night V I 196-197, Feste
Iago: I learned it in England, where indeed they are most potent in potting. Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander – drink, ho! – are nothing to your English.
Cassio: Is your Englishman so exquisite in his drinking?
Iago: Why, he drinks you with facility your Dane dead drunk. He sweats not to overthrow your Almain. He gives your Hollander a vomit ere the next pottle can be filled. William Shakespeare, Othello II iii @70
It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the devil wrath. ibid. II iii 289-290
One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor. George Carlin
He considered it foolish to suppose that alcohol was a source of inspiration. He knew that it constrained his imagination confining it to layers of drunken perception. When he was drunk, he was oblivious to detail or perspective. Yet he welcomed, and actively sought, this state. It relieved him from fear and responsibility. But what did he fear? Peter Ackroyd, The Lambs of London p15
It’s my opinion, sir, that this meeting is drunk, sir! Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers, Mr Stiggins
For the first twenty years of my life, I rocked myself to sleep. It was a harmless enough hobby, but eventually, I had to give it up. Throughout the next twenty-two years I lay still and discovered that after a few minutes I could drop off with no problem. Follow seven beers with a couple of scotches and a thimble of good marijuana, and it’s funny how sleep just sort of comes on its own. Often I never even made it to the bed. I’d squat down to pet the cat and wake up on the floor eight hours later, having lost a perfectly good excuse to change my clothes. I’m now told that this is not called ‘going to sleep’ but rather ‘passing out’, a phrase that carries a distinct hint of judgment. David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
‘Making rules about drinking can be the sign of an alcoholic,’ as Martin Amis once teasingly said to me. (Adorno would have savored that, as well.) Of course, watching the clock for the start-time is probably a bad sign, but here are some simple pieces of advice for the young. Don’t drink on an empty stomach: the main point of the refreshment is the enhancement of food. Don’t drink if you have the blues: it’s a junk cure. Drink when you are in a good mood. Cheap booze is a false economy. It’s not true that you shouldn't drink alone: these can be the happiest glasses you ever drain. Hangovers are another bad sign, and you should not expect to be believed if you take refuge in saying you can’t properly remember last night. (If you really don't remember, that’s an even worse sign.) Avoid all narcotics: these make you more boring rather than less and are not designed – as are the grape and the grain – to enliven company. Be careful about up-grading too far to single malt Scotch: when you are voyaging in rough countries it won’t be easily available. Never even think about driving a car if you have taken a drop. It’s much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don’t know quite why this is true but it just is. Don’t ever be responsible for it. Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk. John Marcellus Huston
But I’m not so think as you drunk I am. J C Squire
They want to stand there get fucking drunk all day long the lot of them. The Firm 2009 starring Daniel Mays & Paul Anderson & Calum McNab & Doug Allen & Joe Jackson & Richie Campbell & James Kelly & Jaf Ibrahim & Tommy Nash & Eddie Webber et al, director Nick Love
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools. Ernest Hemingway
A man’s true character comes out when he’s drunk. Charlie Chaplin
The proper behaviour all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to. P J O’Rourke
All the mistakes I’ve ever made in my life have been when I’ve been drunk. I haven’t made hardly any mistakes sober, ever, ever. Tracey Emin
My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad; but New York City? Henny Youngman
Sometimes when you’re drunk you can see better. Damien Hirst
One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters ... But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk. Charles Baudelaire
So Noah, when he anchor’d safe on
The mountain’s top, his lofty haven,
And all the passengers he bore
Were on the new world set ashore,
He made it next his chief design
To plant and propagate a vine,
Which since has overwhelm’d and drown’d
Far greater numbers, on dry ground,
Of wretched mankind, one by one,
Than all the flood before had done. Samuel Butler, Satire Upon Drunkenness
Beverly: I’ll tell you what, listen, we’ll all get pissed.
Angela: Yes. We can enjoy ourselves. Play for Today: Abigail’s Party, written and directed Mike Leigh, starring Alison Steadman ***** BBC 1977
I think I’m going to be sick. ibid. Sue to Beverly, with Angela
31st August 1969 diary entry: ‘Yesterday was another terrible day – insulting Elizabeth. Drunk …’ The Richard Burton Diaries, BBC 2013
We’re addicts, Elizabeth. You and I. ibid.
Stay out all night, but take especial care
That Prudence bring thee back to early prayer
As one with watching and with study faint,
Reel in a drunkard, and reel out a saint. Charles Churchill, 1731-64, English poet, Night
Homage? You’re all drunk. It’s disgusting. Out! Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979 ***** starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Kenneth Colley & Neil Innes & Gwen Taylor & Terence barler & Carol Cleveland & Spike Milligan et al, director Terry Jones, Mary
Wise man: We were led by a star.
Mary: Led by the bottle more like. ibid.
Was it the fact that you got on the plane still drunk from the night before? Flight 2012 starring Denzel Washington & Don Cheadle & Kelly Reilly & Bruce Greenwood & John Goodman & Melissa Leo & Tamara Tunie & Nadine Velazquez & Brian Geraghty & Justin Martin & James Badge Dale et al, director Robert Zemeckis, co-pilot to pilot
And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. Genesis 9:20&21
Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the Lord: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. Jeremiah 48:26
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. Lamentations 4:21
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Joel 1:5&15
Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! Habakkuk 2:15
Do that to no man which thou hatest: drink not wine to make thee drunken: neither let drunkenness go with thee in thy journey. Tobias 4:15
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18