Yet, for my part, I was never usually squeamish; I could sometimes eat a fried rat with a good relish, if it were necessary. I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same reason that I prefer the natural sky to an opium-eater’s heaven. I would fain keep sober always; and there are infinite degrees of drunkenness. 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 fail 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. Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?

My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.

High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water.

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom.

The only way of rendering life endurable is to drink as much wine as one can come by.

Great books are wine,” Twain said, “but my books are water. But everybody drinks water.

It is the part of a wise man, I say, to refresh and restore himself in moderation with pleasant food and drink, with scents, with the beauty of green plants, with decoration, music, sports, the theater, and other things of this kind, which anyone can use without injury to another.

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

Understanding is a pure glass of water. All great truths have no taste. Hints of sweetness are coloured by the need for amazement.

God only is wise.

The wise man is he who knows when and how to stop

A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.

A wise man’s life is all one preparation for death.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.