Wine

"I was in love with a beautiful blonde once. She drove me to drink; that's the one thing I'm indebted to her for."

"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?"

"We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana, as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy!"

"Before man drinks of it, he is innocent as a lamb; if he drinks of it moderately, he feels as strong as a lion; if he drinks more of it than he can bear, he resembles the pig; and if he drinks to the point of intoxication, then he behaves like a monkey, he dances around, sings, talks obscenely, and knows not what he is doing."

"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard."

"Youth is intoxication without wine. ("Jugend ist Trunkenheit ohne Wein.")."

"My dear girl, there are some things that just aren't done, such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That's just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!"

"So, I called up the Captain: "Please bring me my wine." He said: "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.""

"At the third cup, wine drinks the man."

"And now, my children, I pray you, do not intoxicate yourselves with wine, for wine twists the understanding away from the truth, and confuses the sight of the eyes. Wine led me astray, so that I felt no shame before the throngs of people in the city, and I turned aside and went in to Tamar in the presence of them, and committed a great sin. And though a man be a king, if he leads an unchaste life, he loses his kingship. I gave Tamar my staff, which is the stay of my tribe, and my girdle-cord, which is power, and my signet-diadem, which is the glory of my kingdom. I did penance for all this, and unto old age I drank no wine, and ate no flesh, and knew no sort of pleasure. Wine causes the secret things of God and man to be revealed unto the stranger. Thus did I disclose the commands of the Lord and the mysteries of my father Jacob to the Canaanite woman Bath-shua, though God had forbidden me to betray them. I also enjoin you not to love gold, and not to look upon the beauty of women, for through money and through beauty I was led astray to Bath-shua the Canaanite. I know that my stock will fall into misery through these two things, for even the wise men among my sons will be changed by them, and the consequence will be that the kingdom of Judah will be diminished, the domain that the Lord gave me as a reward for my obedient conduct toward my father, for never did I speak in contradiction of him, but I did all things according to his words."

"In nothing have the habits of the palate more decisive influence than in our relish of wines."

"And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles."

"And the vine said unto them, Shoult I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?"

"It is said that during the time of the Imams, certain close followers [had] secretly gathered for spiritual brotherhood rituals in which wine was consumed in a sacred context. These gatherings have been compared to the Last Supper of Jesus, involving a symbolic and spiritually charged drink. … If wine is a “Servant of Light,” then it reveals both the light and the darkness within us."

"What care I, love, for what the Sufis say? The Sufis are but drunk another way; So you be drunk, it matters not the means, So you be drunk—and glorify your clay. Drunken myself, and with a merry mind, An old man passed me, all in vine leaves twined; I said, “Old man, hast thou forgotten God?” “Go, drink yourself,” he said, “for God is kind.” “Did God set grapes a-growing, do you think, And at the same time make it sin to drink? Give thanks to HIM who foreordained it thus— Surely HE loves to hear the glasses clink!”"

"O for a Bowle of fatt Canary, Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry, Some Nectar else, from Juno’s Daiery, O these draughts would make us merry."

"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."