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Beware the deadly fumes of that insane elation
Which rises from the cup of mad impiety,
And go, get drunk with that divine intoxication
Which is more sober far than all sobriety.
Author: William R. Alger
Source: Oriental Poetry--The Sober Drunkenness
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Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
The best of life is but intoxication:
Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk
The hopes of all men and of every nation;
Without their sap, how branchless were the trunk
Of life's strange tree, so fruitful on occasion:
But to return,--Get very drunk; and when
You wake with headache, you shall see what then.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto II, st. 179)
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A sensual and intemperate youth hands over a worn-out body to old
age.
[Lat., Libidinosa etenim et intemperans adolescentia effoetum
corpus tradit senectuti.]
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: De Senectute (IX)
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Ha! see where the wild-blazing Grog-Shop appears,
As the red waves of wretchedness swell,
How it burns on the edge of tempestuous years
The horrible Light-House of Hell!
Author: M'Donald Clarke ("The Mad Poet")
Source: The Rum Hole
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All learned, and all drunk!
Author: William Cowper
Source: Task (bk. IV, l. 478)
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Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Task (bk. IV, l. 510)
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He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin.
Author: Laertius Diogenes
Source: Lives of the Philosophers--Pythagoras (VI)
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Then hasten to be drunk, the business of the day.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Cymon and Iphigenia (l. 407)
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Petition me no petitions, Sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business,
To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.
Author: Henry Fielding
Source: Tom Thumb the Great (act I, sc. 2)
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He that is drunken . . .
Is outlawed by himself; all kind of ill
Did with his liquor slide into his veins.
Author: George Herbert
Source: The Temple--The Church Porch (st. 6)
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Shall I, to please another wine-sprung minde,
Lose all mine own? God hath giv'n me a measure
Short of His can and body; must I find
A pain in that, wherein he finds a pleasure?
Author: George Herbert
Source: The Temple--The Church Porch (st. 7)
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What does drunkenness accomplish? It discloses secrets, it
ratifies hopes, and urges even the unarmed to battle.
[Lat., Quid non ebrietas designat? Operta recludit;
Spes jubet esse ratas; in praelia trudit inermem.]
Author: Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Source: Epistles (I, 5, 16)
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Touch the goblet no more!
It will make thy heart sore
To its very core!
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Source: Christus--The Golden Legend (pt. I)
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Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
Th' express resemblance of the gods, is chang'd
Into some bruitish form of wolf or bear,
Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;
And they, so perfect in their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement.
Author: John Milton
Source: Comus (l. 64)
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. . . And when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Author: John Milton
Source: Paradise Lost (bk. I, l. 500)
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In vain I trusted that the flowing bowl
Would banish sorrow, and enlarge the soul.
To the late revel, and protracted feast,
Wild dreams succeeded, and disorder'd rest.
Author: Matthew Prior
Source: Solomon (bk. II, l. 106)
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Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.
[Lat., Nihil aliud est ebrietas quam voluntaria insania.]
Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Source: Epistoloe Ad Lucilium (LXXXIII)
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O monstrous! but one halfpennyworth of bread to this intolerable
deal of sack!
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: King Henry the Fourth, Part I (Prince Henry at II, iv)
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(King Ferdinand:) In love, I hope--sweet fellowship in shame!
(Berowne:) One drunkard loves another of the name.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Love's Labor's Lost (King Ferdinand & Berowne at IV, iii)
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Boundless intemperance
In nature is a tyranny. It hath been
Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne
And fall of many kings.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Macbeth (Macduff at IV, iii)
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In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
Being full of supper and distemp'ring draughts,
Upon malicious knavery does thou come
To start my quiet.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Othello the Moor of Venice (Brabantio at I, i)
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I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel,
but nothing wherefore. O God, that men should put an enemy in
their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should with
joy, pleasance, revel, and applause transform ourselves into
beasts!
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Othello the Moor of Venice (Cassio at II, iii)
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I will ask him for my place again: he shall tell me I am a
drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would
stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and
presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is unblest,
and the ingredient is a devil.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Othello the Moor of Venice (Cassio at II, iii)
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I told you, sir, they were redhot with drinking;
So full of valor that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces, beat the ground,
For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
Towards their project.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tempest (Ariel at IV, i)
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(Olivia:) What's a drunken man like, fool?
(Clown:) Like a drowned man, a fool, and a madman. One draught
above heat makes him a fool, the seconds mads him, and a third
drowns him.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Twelfth Night, or, What You Will (Olivia & Clown at I, v)
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