WIST Quotations

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 22, The Last Continent (1998)

Dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 23:22:30 +0000

A flash of inspiration struck him with all the force and brilliance that ideas have when they’re travelling through beer.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 22, The Last Continent (1998)
(Source)

Taylor, Barbara Brown -- Learning to Walk in the Dark, ch. 2 (2014)

Dave — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 18:07:02 +0000

Sometimes I wondered if it even mattered whether our communion cups were filled with consecrated wine or draft beer, as long as we bent over them long enough to recognize each other as kin.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Learning to Walk in the Dark, ch. 2 (2014)
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- Henry V, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 9ff (3.2.9-14) (1599)

Dave — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 15:40:10 +0000

PISTOL: Knocks go and come. God’s vassals drop and die,
And sword and shield,
In bloody field,
Doth win immortal fame.

BOY: Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would
give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.

PISTOL: And I.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry V, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 9ff (3.2.9-14) (1599)
(Source)

Lehrer, Tom -- “Bright College Days”

Dave — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 14:39:37 +0000

Bright college days, oh, carefree days that fly,
To thee we sing with our glasses raised on high.
Let’s drink a toast as each of us recalls
Ivy-covered professors in ivy-covered halls.

Turn on the spigot,
Pour the beer and swig it,
And gaudeamus igit-
-ur.

Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) American mathematician, satirist, songwriter
“Bright College Days”

Zappa, Frank -- The Real Frank Zappa Book, ch. 12 “America Drinks & Goes Marching” (1989) [with Peter Occhiogrosso]

Dave — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 17:40:37 +0000

Every major industrialized nation has A BEER (you can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline — it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need A BEER).

Frank Zappa (1940-1993) American singer-songwriter
The Real Frank Zappa Book, ch. 12 “America Drinks & Goes Marching” (1989) [with Peter Occhiogrosso]
(Source)

More discussion of this quotation: You Can’t Be a Real Country Unless You Have a Beer and an Airline – Quote Investigator

Lawson, Henry -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 14:17:53 +0000

Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.

Henry Lawson (1867-1922) Australian writer and poet
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted in Denton Prout, Henry Lawson: The Grey Dreamer (1963); David Low, Autobiography(1956). Also attributed to David McKee Wright.

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1816-01-06) to Charles Yancey

Dave — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 12:57:37 +0000

I wish to see this beverage become common instead of the whisky which kills one-third of our citizens and ruins their families.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1816-01-06) to Charles Yancey
(Source)

On beer.

Frederick II (the Great) -- Proclamation (13 Sep 1777)

Dave — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:27:21 +0000

It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects. … If possible, this must be prevented. My people must drink beer.

Frederick II (1712-1786) King of Prussia (Frederick the Great, Friedrich der Große)
Proclamation (13 Sep 1777)

Barry, Dave -- “Daze of Wine and Roses,” Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits (1988)

Dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 12:57:20 +0000

I have never gotten into wine. I’m a beer man. What I like about beer is you basically just drink it, then you order another one. You don’t sniff at it, or hold it up to the light and slosh it around, and above all you don’t drone on and on about it, the way people do with wine. Your beer drinker tends to be a straightforward, decent, friendly, down-to-earth person who enjoys talking about the importance of relief pitching, whereas your serious wine fancier tends to be an insufferable snot.

Dave Barry (b. 1947) American humorist, author, columnist
“Daze of Wine and Roses,” Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits (1988)

Piper, H. Beam -- Little Fuzzy, ch. 2 (1962)

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:36:06 +0000

Take a drink because you pity yourself, and then the drink pities you and has a drink, and then two good drinks get together and that calls for drinks all around.

H. Beam Piper (1904-1964) American author
Little Fuzzy, ch. 2 (1962)
(Source)

See also here.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:22:02 +0000

First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
(Attributed)

Sometimes cited to Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, but not found there. See also Hokekyo-Sho, Piper, and this Spanish Proverb.

Shakespeare, William -- Macbeth, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 27ff (2.3.27-38) (1606)

Dave — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:39:26 +0000

PORTER: Drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.

MACDUFF: What three things does drink especially provoke?

PORTER: Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes;
it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance:
therefore, much drink may be said
to be an equivocator with lechery:
it makes him, and it mars him;
it sets him on, and it takes him off;
it persuades him, and disheartens him;
makes him stand to, and not stand to;
in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep,
and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 27ff (2.3.27-38) (1606)
(Source)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Letter to Abbé Morallet (1779)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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!

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Letter to Abbé Morallet (1779)
(Source)

Apparent origin of the misquote: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."