Throughout recorded history, there’s been a time for writing and talking about beer, as well as for drinking beer. Here are great beer quotes from the ancients to the moderns:
No children without sex—No drunkenness without beer.
—Ancient Sumerian Proverb
An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger, or a beer.
—Confucius, 551-479 BC
He was a wise man who invented beer.
—Plato, 427BC-347BC
Beer—a high and mighty liquor.
—Julius Caesar, 100-44 BC
From man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world.
—Saint Arnoldus, 534-562
It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of the ale-house in church.
—Martin Luther, 1483-1546
Wine is but single broth, ale is meat, drink, and cloth.
—16th Century English Proverb
I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.
—William Shakespeare (King Henry V)
Englishmen are like their own beer: Frothy on top, dregs on the bottom, the middle excellent.
—Voltaire, 1694-1778
I believe this would be a good time for a beer—Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945, upon the ratification of the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition
In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer.
—A.J.P. Taylor, 1906-1990, British historian
Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer.
—Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1947-
The public is a guy who wants his shot and a glass of beer.
—Al Capone, 1899-1947
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.
—Abraham Lincoln
There is to me something profoundly affecting in large masses of men following the lead of those who do not believe in men, and beer.
—Walt Whitman, 1819-1892
Give my people plenty of beer, good beer, and cheap beer, and you will have no revolution among them.
—Queen Victoria, 1819-1901
Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.
—Henry Lawson, 1867-1922, Australian poet & writer
Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.
—Kaiser Welhelm II, 1859-1941
There is nothing in the world like the first taste of beer.
—John Steinbeck, 1902-1968
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, sweat, and beer.
—Winston Churchill, 1874-1965
Evangelical perfection cannot be conceived of without a strong dose of egoism, pride, toughness, and beer.
—Charles De Gaulle, 1890-1970
All the fat guys watch me and say to their wives, ‘See, there’s a fat guy doing okay. Bring me another beer.’
—Mickey Lolich, pitcher, Detroit Tigers
Beer, of course, is actually a depressant, but poor people will never stop hoping otherwise.
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1922-, from Hocus Pocus, 1990
Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can’t spell Cognac. —Mickey Spillane, detective novelist, 1918-
You can only drink thirty or forty glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
—Adophus Busch