Throughout this website we have used various quotations about Scotch Whisky. These are listed in full here for your enjoyment along with a few others.
"I Like my whisky old and my women young. "
(Errol Flynn)
"Always
carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry
a small snake."
"Anybody who hates dogs and loves whiskey
can't be all bad.
"We frequently hear of people dying from too much drinking. That
this happens is a matter of record. But the blame is always placed on whisky.
Why this should be I never could understand. You can die from drinking too much
of anything — coffee, water, milk, soft drinks and all such stuff as that.
And so as long as the presence of death lurks with anyone who goes through the
simple act of swallowing. I will make mine whisky."
(W.C. Fields, 1880-1946)
"The light music of whiskey falling into a glass - an agreeable interlude."
(James Joyce)
"Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whiskey is barely enough."
(Mark Twain)
"Give an Irishman lager for a month, and he's a dead man. An Irishman
is lined with copper, and the beer corrodes it. But whiskey polishes the copper
and is the saving of him."
(Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi)
"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over."
(Attributed Mark Twain)
“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car
keys to teenage boys.”
(P. J. O'Rourke, 1947 - )
“Champagne's funny stuff. I'm used to whiskey. Whiskey is a slap on
the back, and champagne's a heavy mist before my eyes.”
(Jimmy Stewart, The Philadelphia Story)
"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
(George Bernard Shaw)
"I should never have switched from Scotch to Martini's
(
Humphrey Bogart's
last words)
"I just had 19 shots of whiskey, I think that's a record."
(Dylan Thomas's last words.)
"Friendship is like whisky, the older, the better."
(Anon.)
"Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
Wi' tipenny, we fear nae evil;
Wi' usquebae, we'll face the devil!"
(Robert Burns 1759 - 1796)
"For a bad hangover take the juice of two quarts of whisky."
(Eddie Condon)
"Don't you drink? I notice you speak slightingly of the bottle. I have drunk
since I was fifteen and few things have given me more pleasure. When you work
hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else
can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whisky? When
you are cold and wet what else can warm you?"
(Ernest Hemingway)
"Whisky, drink divine!
Why should drivelers bore us
With the praise of wine
While we've thee before us?"
(Joseph O'Leary)
"Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy!"
(Ordering a glass of whisky for himself in Tour
to
the Hebrides (1773)
by James Boswell )
"We borrowed golf from Scotland as we borrowed whiskey. Not because it
is Scottish, but because it is good."
(
Horace Hutchinson)
"They say some of my stars drink whiskey. But I have found that the ones
who drink milkshakes don't win many ball games."
(Casey Stengel - Baseball Coach)
"When it's third and ten, you can take the milk drinkers and I'll take
the whiskey drinkers every time."
(Max McGee - American Football Commentator)
"What butter and whiskey won't cure, there is no cure for."
(Irish Saying)
"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster
that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and
poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if
you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles
of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pits of degradation, shame,
despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it
with every fiber of my being.
However, if by whiskey you mean the oil of conversation,
the philosophic wine, the elixir of life, the ale that is consumed when good
fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment
in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little
spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that
drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies
and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into
our treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care
for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully
aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community
colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor
of it. This is my position, and as always, I refuse to be compromised on matters
of principle.
(Address to the legislature by a Mississippi state senator,
1958, "Whiskey
Speech")
"The proper drinking of Scotch whisky is more than indulgence: it is
a toast to civilization, a tribute to the continuity of culture, a manifesto
of man’s
determination to use the resources of nature to refresh mind and body and enjoy
to the full the senses with which he has been endowed."
(David Daiches, Scotch
Whisky 1969)
"There are two things a Highlander likes naked, and one of them is malt
whisky."
(Scottish proverb.)
"May the enemies of Ireland never eat bread nor drink whiskey, but be tormented
with itching without benefit of scratching."
(Irish toast.)
(Commenting on a funeral in the highlands of Scotland in
the eighteenth century)
"Yesterday we were invited to the funeral of an old lady, and found ourselves
in the midst of fifty people, who were regaled with a sumptuous feast, accompanied
by the music of a dozen pipers. In short, this meeting had all the air of a grand
festival; and the guests did such honour to the entertainment, that many of them
could not stand when we were reminded of the business on which we had met....
The
body was committed to the earth, the pipers playing a pibroch all the time; and
all the company standing uncovered. The ceremony was closed with the discharge
of pistols ; then we returned to castle, resumed the bottle, and by midnight
there was not a sober person in the family, the females excepted. Our entertainer
was a little chagrined at our retreat, and seemed to think it a disparagement
to his family, that not above a hundred gallons of whisky had been drunk upon
such a solemn occasion.
(Tobias Smollet in Humphrey Clinker.)
"Beer does not taste like itself unless it is chasing a dram of neat
whisky down the gullet - preferably two drams"
(Sir Compton MacKenzie writing in 1907.)
"The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add
whisky. By diligent effort, I learnt to like it."
(Sir Winston Churchill)
"I love to sing, and I love to drink scotch. Most people would rather
hear me drink scotch."
(
George Burns.)
