Unlike an envied and admirable few, I separate my friends and almost never dare mingle one group with another. When I do, it is usually a social disaster, like mixing drinks. I love good beer and I love good wine, but you cannot drink both on the same evening without suffering. I love the friends with whom I play or once daily played snooker and tooted quantities of high-grade pulverized Andean flake; I love the friends with whom I dine at preposterously expensive restaurants; I love the friends with whom I’m film-making or mincing on the stage. I love and value them all equally and don’t think of them as stratified or in tiers, one group in some way higher or more important than the rest, but the thought of introducing them to each other makes me shiver and shudder with cringing embarrassment.

What excites pleasure in me is the meeting and conversing with old friends. But it is very galling when my friends do not visit me because there is a biting wind, or the roads are muddy through the rain, or perhaps because they are sick. Then I feel isolated. Although I myself do not drink, yet I provide spirits for my friends, [...]. In front of my house runs a great river, and there I can sit with my friends in the shadow of the lovely trees. [...] When they come they drink and chat, just as they please, but our pleasure is in the conversation and not in the liquor. We do not discuss politics because we are so isolated here that our news is simply composed of rumors, and it would only be a waste of time to talk with untrustworthy information. We also never talk about other people's faults, because in this world nobody is wrong, and we should beware of backbiting. We do not wish to injure anyone, and therefore our conversation is of no consequence to anyone. We discuss human nature about which people know so little because they are too busy to study it.

I'm in a position now where I really have to think whether I should go to a pub, but I go from time to time with friends and have a glass of wine. It's good to show that a bishop is a normal person.

From wine what sudden friendship springs!

They have servants. I’d rather have friends.

A bottle of wine was good company.

Wine can be a better teacher than ink, and banter is often better than books

I love a friendly chat and a friendly glass of wine during the evening - the time they call, for some accountable reason, 'between dog and wolf'.

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.

When I’m not busy I don’t feel fulfilled. It keeps my brain from turning to potatoes. Relaxing in the shade with a glass of wine would be nice, but it’s not my first choice.

New friends can often have a better time together than old friends.

It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction.

Wine is good, but water is preferable at table.

They talk on about death, about boredom, they drink wine, they laugh, they have a good time, they are happy.