“In vino veritas.” (In wine there is truth.) – Pliny, the Elder, 23-79 A.D. 

“In vino veritas, in cervesio Felicitas.” (In wine there is truth, in beer there is happiness.)

“…. behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes, to be changed into wine: a constant proof God loves us and loves to see us happy.”
-American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin

“Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.”
-American author Ernest Hemmingway

“Wine is bottled poetry.”
-Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson

“The Spirit of Wine
Sang in my glass, and I listened
With love to his odorous music,
His flushed and magnificent song.”
-British poet William Ernest Henly

“Wine makes a symphony of a good meal.”
-Fernande Garvin

“We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.”
-Uruguayan journalist & author Eduardo Galeano

“Wine, Madam, is God’s next best gift to man.”
-American author & essayist Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce was a rather eclectic figure who disappeared from the American scene in 1913 when he traveled to Mexico, ostensibly to join Pancho Villa’s revolution. His quote is a great way to end the list. I hope you enjoyed it. 

"The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken." ---Homer,The Odyssey, bk. XIV, l. 463

"No one that has drunk old wine wants new; for he says, "The old is nice.""-- Luke 5:39

"When there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing." - Ovid, "The Art of Love" (c. A.D. 8) 

"The wine-cup is the little silver well, Where truth, if truth there be, doth dwell." --- William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

"He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long." --Martin Luther, 1777

"Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1771

"Clearly, the pleasures wines afford are transitory - but so are those of the ballet, or of a musical performance. Wine is inspiring and adds greatly to the joy of living." --- Napoleon, 1769-1821

"Within the bottle's depths, the wine's soul sang one night." --- Charles Baudelaire, 1821-1867

"Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach Who please, the more because they preach in vain,…Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after."  --  Lord Byron, English philosopher, poet and bon vivant (1788-1824)

"Which cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires The young, makes Weariness forget his toil, And Fear her danger; opens a new world When this, the present, palls."  --  Lord Byron, English philosopher, poet and bon vivant (1788-1824)

"Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels."   --  Lord Byron, English philosopher, poet and bon vivant (1788-1824)

"The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars."  --  Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)

"There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking."  --  Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)

"Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance"  --  Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)

"Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water."  --  Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)

“We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.”  --  Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)

Wine Comes In At The Mouth
    "Wine comes in at the mouth
    And love comes in at the eye;
    That's all we shall know for truth
    Before we grow old and die.
    I lift the glass to my mouth,
    I look at you, and I sigh."
    -- William Butler Yeats."

Now when I buy wine, I look for very different qualities. Is it on sale? Is the spigot on the box non-drip?

"Anyone who tries to make you believe that he knows all about wines is obviously a fake." -- Leon Adams, The Commonsense Book of Wine

“When I find someone I respect writing about an edgy, nervous wine that dithered in the glass, I cringe. When I hear someone I don't respect talking about an austere, unforgiving wine, I turn a bit austere and unforgiving myself. When I come across stuff like that and remember about the figs and bananas, I want to snigger uneasily. You can call a wine red, and dry, and strong, and pleasant. After that, watch out....” --Kingsley Amis, Everyday Drinking

"Wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile." - Homer, "Odyssey” (9th c. B.C.)

“Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” -- Aristophanes quotes 450-385 BC)

"No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God." -- Plato, 400 BC 

"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." - Proverbs 31:6-7:

"With wine in hand, one reaches the happy state - where men are wise, women beautiful; and even one's children begin to look promising." – unknown

"I think it is a great error to consider a heavy tax on wines as a tax on luxury. On the contrary, it is a tax on the health of our citizens."  --  Thomas Jefferson

"No nation is drunken where wine is cheap, and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage.  Wine brightens the life and thinking of anyone."  --  Thomas Jefferson

"I have lived temperately....I double the doctor's recommendation of a glass and a half of wine each day and even treble it with a friend."  --  Thomas Jefferson

"By making this wine vine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt"  --  Thomas Jefferson

"Bacchus, we thank who gave us wine
Which warms the blood within our veins;
That nectar is itself divine.
The man who drinks not, yet attains
By godly grace to human rank
Would be an angel if he drank."
--- Pierre Motin

"God made only water, but man made wine."
--- Victor Hugo, 1856

"Wine... the intellectual part of the meal...."
--- Alexandre Dumas

"I serve your Beaune to my friends, but your Volnay I keep for myself."
--- Voltaire

"If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good?"
--- Cardinal Richeleu

"For a chase, the Cardinal recommends his excellent '24 Cabernet."--- Porthos in the Three Musketeers

"The best use of bad wine is to drive away poor relations."
--- French proverb

"L'acqua fa male e il vina fa catare" -- Italian proverb (Water is bad for you and wine makes you sing.)

“I feast on wine and bread, and feasts they are.” -- Michelangelo, 1475-1564)

“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”-- Galileo Galilei, (1564-1642)

“And that you may the less marvel at my words, Look at the sun's heat that becomes wine when combine with the juice that flows from the vine.” -- Dante Alighieri, (1265-1321)

"Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age." – Pope John XXIII

“He is a fool who boasts of four things: that he has good wine, a good horse, a handsome wife, and plenty of money”. Italian Proverb

"My dear girl, there are some things that are just not done, such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38° Fahrenheit." --- James Bond in Ian Fleming's Goldfinger

"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?" --- Larson E. Whipsnade (W.C. Fields) in You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man 1938

"This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste." --- Count Mippipopolous in The Sun Also Rises, 1926, by Ernest Hemingway

"During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew. We were compelled to live on food and water for several days." --- Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields) in My Little Chickadee, 1940

"…then the streams would run with wine instead of water and the whole forest would give itself up to jollification for weeks on end." ~ C. S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

"I like to drink wine more than I used to ..." Don Corleone. "It's good for you, pop." Michael Corleone – The Godfather

“Wine is like people. The wine takes all the influences in life all around it, it absorbs them and it gets its personality." French Kiss (1995) – Luc (Kevin Kline)

“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.”
    Silence of the Lambs (1991) – Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins)

“I myself subscribe more to the European philosophy of life, my priorities leaning towards wine, women and, well that's about it.” -- Alfie (2004) – Alfie (Jude Law)

"Let me show you how this is done. First thing, hold the glass up and examine the wine against the light. You're looking for color and clarity. Just, get a sense of it. OK? Uhh, thick? Thin? Watery? Syrupy? OK? Alright. Now, tip it. What you're doing here is checking for color density as it thins out towards the rim. Uhh, that's gonna tell you how old it is, among other things. It's usually more important with reds. OK? Now, stick your nose in it. Don't be shy, really get your nose in there. Mmm... a little citrus... maybe some strawberry... [smacks lips] ... passion fruit... ... and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of like asparagus and just a flutter of a,... like a ... nutty Edam cheese... Miles Raymond, Sideways

“I never drink…wine.” -- Dracula (1931) – Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) 

“Men are like a fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you'd like to have dinner with.” -- Kathleen Mifsud

“I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food.” -- W. C. Fields, 1880-1946)

Due to the heavy wine fog all further thoughts have been temporarily suspended

Wine improves with age, the older I get the better I like it

Like a fine wine I'm not getting older, I'm becoming more complex

I only drink wine on days ending in "y"

"They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream." -- Ernest Dowson