If you thirst you may drink.

That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.

There are two reasons for drinking: one is, when you are thirsty, to cure it; the other, when you are not thirsty, to prevent it. The first is obvious, mechanical, and plebeian; the second is most refined, abstract, prospicient, and canonical.

Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational drinking, and the ancient health of the world.

I only drink on two occasions — When I am thirsty and when I'm not.

Baste! enough! I sup, I wet, I humect, I moisten my gullet, I drink, and all for fear of dying. Drink always and you shall never die.

If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.

When you drink water from a cup, it becomes part of you. When water falls on you like rain, it evaporates a few minutes later.

Similarly, thoughts can be consumed or dismissed. Is this thought nourishing? Is this feeling something you should drink? Or is it more like getting caught in the rain?

You'll always feel the rain, but you don't have to drink the rain. You can let the thought pass and in a few moments the sun will return. You don't have to claim everything you feel.

I want to fight you
just as when I am thirsty I want to drink.

One should always be drunk. That's all that matters...But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.

"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water!"

When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm thirsty, I drink. And when I feel like saying something, I just say it.

I drink out of desperation. Life is too dreary to endure. The misery, loneliness, crampedness — they're heartbreaking.[...] What feelings do you suppose a man has when he realizes that he will never know happiness or glory as long as he lives? Hard work. All that amounts to is food for the wild beasts of hunger.

He who does not give himself leisure to be thirsty cannot take pleasure in drinking.