“If I asked her master he’d give me a cask a day;
But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange!
May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may
The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange.”
— James Kenneth Stephens, A Glass of Beer

“One of the few moments of happiness a man knows in Australia is that moment of meeting the eyes of another man over the tops of two beer glasses.” — Anonymous

“In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer—the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.” — A.J.P. Taylor, British historian, 1984

“Beer, tobacco, and music,” he went on. “Behold the Fatherland.” — Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, 1924

“We have to recognise, that the gin-palace, like many other evils, although a poisonous, is still a natural outgrowth of our social conditions. The tap-room in many cases is the poor man’s only parlour. Many a man takes to beer, not from the love of beer, but from a natural craving for the light, warmth, company, and comfort which is thrown in along with the beer, and which he cannot get excepting by buying beer. Reformers will never get rid of the drink shop until they can outbid it in the subsidiary attractions which it offers to its customers.” — William Booth, Salvation Army, 1890

“God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” — Anne Sexton

“Doth it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?” — William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Pt 2

“Demagogue — a vessel containing beer and other liquids.” — Mark Twain, Girls, 1910

“What two ideas are more inseparable than beer and Britannia?” —Sydney Smith, British clergyman, 1934

“I’ve only been in love with a beer bottle and a mirror.” — Sid Vicious