John Ciardi Quotes

I promise ... to abstain from all kinds of intoxicating drink, unless used medically.

I didn't drink for two years.

something has been said for sobriety but very little.

I would fain keep sober always; and there are infinite degrees of drunkenness.

An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.

A drunkard is one thing, and a temperate man is quite another.

I am not a member of any temperance society; but I am temperate, in this, that I don’t drink anything.

Since the creation of the world there has been no tyrant like Intemperance, and no slaves so cruelly treated as his.

I have never been drunk in my life, and I don't expect I ever will be.

I don't drink at all.

I don't even drink.

I am too much of a control freak to be a drinker.

I am not drinking now but I cannot guarantee tomorrow.

Now don't say you can't swear off drinking; it's easy. I've done it a thousand times.

If I had not some strength of will I would make a first class drunkard.

The other guys drink, but they don't drink anywhere near what I used to. And I think they're slightly respectful of the fact that I'm off it, so it's not a problem.

We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given to us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it.

We have drunk too much of your rum already, which has occasioned our destruction; we will, in the future, beware of it.

I can go eight days without a drink—but who wants to be a camel.

Abstinence from spirituous liquors is the best safeguard of morals and health.

Drunkenness was attacked in the same manner; it was discountenanced on every occasion by those who had charge of any department: its destructive and pernicious effects were frequently stated by his own more prudent comrades, at the proper moment when the individual was soberly suffering from the effects of his previous excess; pot- and public-houses were gradually removed from the immediate vicinity of their dwellings; the health and comfort of temperance were made familiar to them; by degrees drunkenness disappeared, and many who were habitual bacchanalians are now conspicuous for undeviating sobriety.

As regards the use of wine, remember that we drink to quench thirst, and that the limit of moderation is reached when the edge of the intellect is dulled. A boy should be brought up to avoid wine…. Your own countrymen, like all northern peoples, are, I know, sore offenders in this matter of eating and drinking. But I count upon your own innate self-respect to preserve you from such bad example, and to enable you to despise the sneers and complaints of those around you.

Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.

That is one advantage of our time; in the highest office of the Reich we have the example of a simple and modest alcohol-and nicotine-free way of life

I don't believe in alcohol. It's a sort of a medicinal necessity for the human condition, none of that stuff. I'm not a gambling man.