“Drown in a cold vat of whisky? Death where is thy sting?”

I couldn't have put it better myself.

There is something about a good quotation. Apart from the immediate ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ reaction, there is something wonderful about a quick flutter of words that so neatly and perfectly sums up something that others might take pages to express. Like all good art it is often a case of less is more, the short and stunningly fitting instrumental part in a song, the simple yet perfectly composed frame in a film or a photograph, the minimalist sweep of great poetry and literature. A good quote is a distillation of many greater ideas and themes or, as is often the case with great whisky quotes, just bloody funny.

Mark Twain, one of the greatest contributors to the whisky quotations cannon.

I have recently discovered a wonderful new website called Quotables, it is a fantastic new social media idea, a place for you to share and enjoy quotations of all kind. A sort of online repository for wit, wisdom, fact, insight, poetic snippets and a celebration of the quote in all its glory. I highly recommend you join, although it is a little addictive I must warn you. Anyway I have been putting up as many whisky quotes as I can find and think of, you check out my profile here. It would be fascinating if we could create some kind of compendium of whisky quotes, a place where they can all be collated together in boozy harmony. I’m sure there must be many other more obscure quotes about whisky lurking in your collective brains. We’ve all heard the great ones from sage gents like Churchill, Twain and W.C.Fields but I’m sure there are more obscure ones to be found and celebrated as well. Anyway get on Quotables and in the mean time here area few of my favourites to get some inspiration started:

“I just had 19 shots of whisky. I think that’s a record.” - Dylan Thomas’ very appropriate last words.

“The light music of whiskey falling into a glass – an agreeable interlude.” – James Joyce

“Great fury, like great whisky, requires long fermentation.” – Truman Capote

“Once, during prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.” – W.C. Fields

“Reality is merely an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol.” – Anon

“Today’s rain is tomorrow’s whisky.” – Anon

“Men are nicotine-soaked, beer-besmirched, whiskey-greased, red-eyed devils.” – Carry Nation

Beautiful little nuggets of hilarity and insight as you can see. There are lots of other things on the Quotables database so its worth checking out but I’d really like to hear more whisky based quotes so leave some in the comments below or add more on Quotables yourselves. Lets get a database together.

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