Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

Whisky making is the art of making poison pleasant

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendor cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate.

Sir, he [Bolingbroke] was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotsman to draw the trigger at his death.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties.