“I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.”

“Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.”

“If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.”

“Then stirs the feeling infinite, so feltIn solitude, where we are least alone.”

“Let us have wine and woman, mirth and laughter,Sermons and soda water the day after.Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;The best of life is but intoxication:Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunkThe hopes of all men, and of every nation;Without their sap, how branchless were the trunkOf life's strange tree, so fruitful on occasion:But to return--Get very drunk; and whenYou wake with head-ache, you shall see what then.”

“I cannot conceive why people will always mix up my own character and opinions with those of the imaginary beings which, as a poet, I have the right and liberty to draw.”

“Why do they call me misanthrope? Because They hate me, not I them.”