Temperance Movement Quotes

The South is dry and will vote dry. That is everybody who is sober enough to stagger to the polls will.

'Boardwalk' begins literally on the first day of Prohibition, which I think was a wonderful way to start - to have the story kind of come out of this massive historical phenomenon. And the more I researched the '20s, the more I discovered just how interesting it was.

The current dominant opinion supporting the war on drugs in general, and our anti-marijuana laws in particular, is reminiscent of the opinion that supported the nationwide ban on alcohol consumption when I was a student. While alcoholic beverages are now regarded as ordinary articles of commerce, their use was then condemned with the same moral fervor that now supports the war on drugs.

Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can't stop what it's meant to stop. We like it. It's left a trail of graft and slime, It don't prohibit worth a dime, It's filled our land with vice and crime. Nevertheless, we're for it.

I started with the book 'Boardwalk Empire' and then immersed myself in the history of Atlantic City, World War I, the temperance movement, Prohibition, pop culture. I even read the news and magazines of the period just to soak in it. That was before I even started thinking of the story.

I am against Prohibition because it has set the cause of temperence back twenty years; because it has substituted an ineffective campaign of force for an effective campaign of education; because it has replaced comparatively uninjurious light wines and beers with the worst kind of hard liquor and bad liquor; because it has increased drinking not only among men but has extended drinking to women and even children.

Let us candidly admit that there are shameful blemishes on the American past, of which the worst by far is rum. Nevertheless, we have improved man's lot and enriched his civilization with rye, bourbon and the Martini cocktail. In all history has any other nation done so much?

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.

After the war, Prohibition was passed, and with liquor no longer legally available the nation plunged headlong into the Great Depression.

If General Garfield [his successor as President] rejects the practice I have inaugurated he will offend thousands and drive them into the hands of the temperance demagogues.

[Describing Prohibition:] Politicians are ducking, candidates are hedging, the Anti-Saloon League is prospering, people are being poisoned, bootleggers are being enriched, and Government officials are being corrupted.

The American people have said that they do not want any liquor sold, and they have said it emphatically by passing almost unanimously the constitutional amendment '

I'm not ashamed to admit that prohibition is 'impractical.'

I prefer milk because I am a Prohibitionist, but I do not go to it for inspiration.

We advocate the repeal of the 18th Amendment.

In fact, the whole thing about prohibition is this: it isn't the initial cost, it's the humidity.

Prohibition cannot be enforced for the simple reason that the majority of American people do not want it enforced and are resisting its enforcement.

Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes.

Many people opposed the very institution of the militia. Temperance proponents objected to the excessive drinking that accompanied musters; peace advocates hated the militarism, no matter how pathetic; merchants and farmers resented the lost time and taxes; labor groups resented the expense of buying guns, flints, and ammunition; others found no utility in the institution now that the United States was not threatened by any external foe. Even in the absence of foreign enemies, some opponents feared that the existence of the militia could encourage a democratic government to declare an unnecessary war.

These laws were born of the belief that we could legislate ourselves out of war, as we had one legislated ourselves out of the saloons. These laws were an experiment, noble in motive but disastrous in results.

Having grown up in Oklahoma when it was one of the last states which prohibited liquor, I grew up with War On Drugs, where every teenager knew who the bootleggers were.

Whiskey and beer are all right in their place, but their place is in hell.

I challenge you to show me where the saloon has ever helped business, education, church, morals or anything we hold dear.

Prohibition has made nothing but trouble.

Prohibition? I drink to its health whenever I can.