“. . . it seemed to me that man himself was like a half-emptied bottle of pale ale, which Time had drunk so far, yet stoppled tight for a while, and drifting about in the ocean of circumstances, but destined ere-long to mingle with the surrounding waves, or be spilled amid the sands of a distant shore.” — Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, 1855-65

“Lo! the poor topper whose untutored sense,
Sees bliss in ale, and can with wine dispense;
Whose head proud fancy never taught to steer,
Beyond the muddy ecstasies of beer.”
— George Crabbe

“He is not deserving the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is, good ale.” — George Borrow

“It’s very hard to get pretentious about beer. You can become knowledgeable and start to talk with a highfalutin’ vocabulary. But you can only go so far with beer, and I’ve always liked that.” — Fritz Maytag

“We brewers don’t make beer, we just get all the ingredients together and the beer makes itself.” — Fritz Maytag

“It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects, and the amount of money that goes out of the country as a consequence. Everybody is using coffee; this must be prevented. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were both his ancestors and officers. Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war.” — Frederick the Great of Prussia, 1777

“Six pints of bitter,’ said Ford Prefect…. ‘And quickly please, the world’s about to end.’” — Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire.” — David Rains Wallace

“Let no man thirst for lack of Real Ale.” — Commonwealth Brewing, Boston, Mass.

“You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.” — Adolphus Busch