Cleckley, Hervey -- The Mask of Sanity (1950 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 21:17:14 +0000

Alcohol is not likely to bring out any impulse that is not already potential in a personality, nor is it likely to cast behavior into patterns for which there is not already significant subsurface predilection. The alcohol merely facilitates expression by narcotizing inhibitory processes. […] The oil which lubricates the engine of an automobile neither furnishes the energy for its progress nor directs it.

Hervey Cleckley (1903–1984) American psychiatrist, academic
The Mask of Sanity (1950 ed.)

Parker, Dorothy -- (Spurious)

Dave — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 14:37:44 +0000

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
After four I’m under my host.

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American writer, poet, wit
(Spurious)

Variants:

"I'd love to have a martini, / Two at the very most. / With three I'm under the table, / With four I'm under my host."
"I like to have a Martini / But only two at the most, / After three I'm under the table, / After four I'm under my host."

Frequently attributed to Parker (the main quatrain quoted is in The Collected Dorothy Parker), but originally an anonymous gag in found in the University of Virginia Harlequin (1959): "I wish I could drink like a lady. / 'Two or three,' at the most. / But two, and I'm under the table -- / And three, I'm under the host."

The confusion apparently comes from Bennett Cerf, Try and Stop Me (1944), where he related an anecdote in which Parker commented about a cocktail party, more straightforwardly, "Enjoyed it? One more drink and I'd have been under the host!" See here for more discussion.

WIST Quotations

Cleckley, Hervey -- The Mask of Sanity (1950 ed.)

Parker, Dorothy -- (Spurious)