I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man: wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning ...with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Other countries drink to get drunk, and this is accepted by everyone; in France, drunkenness is a consequence, never an intention.... A drink is felt as the spinning out of a pleasure, not as the necessary cause of an effect which is sought: wine is not only a philtre, it is also the leisurely act of drinking.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Wine is a part of society because it provides a basis not only for a morality but also for an environment; it is an ornament in th...e slightest ceremonials of French daily life, from the snack ... to the feast, from the conversation at the local café to the speech at a formal dinnerLESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I can no more think of my own life without thinking of wine and wines and where they grew for me and why I drank them when I did a...nd why I picked the grapes and where I opened the oldest procurable bottles, and all that, than I can remember living before I breathed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »