Let there be a patron like Maecenus, Flaccus, and your lands will give you a poet like Virgil - Thomas de Quincey

the opium-eater cannot present himself in the character of l'Allegro: even then, he speaks and thinks as becomes Il Penseroso.

Nevertheless, I have a very reprehensible way of heating at times in the midst of my own misery: and, unless when I am checked by some powerful feelings, I am afraid I shall be guilty of this indecent practice even in these annals of suffering or enjoyment

[...] it is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor: for, on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety; and it is when they are drinking [...] that men [...] display themselves in their true complexion of character; which surely is not disguising themselves.