Samuel Johnson Quotes About Drinking

• One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mistake, Drinking, Food

  "Life of Samuel Johnson". Book by James Boswell. Volume II, p. 659, 1791.

• Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Wine, Men

• Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Drinking, Wine

  "The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals".

• Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Food, Hero

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 3, p. 381 (7 April 1779)

• That all who are happy are equally happy is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. A small drinking glass and a large one may be equally full, but the large one holds more than the small.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Drinking, Insperational

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.227

• I also admit, that there are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits which are not good till they are rotten.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Men, Alcohol

  "The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals".

• Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Food, Wine

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.220

• Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Wine, Men

  Samuel Johnson (1807). “Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson”, p.42

• Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Mean, Alcohol

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.5

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