Fools! not to know how far an humble lot
Exceeds abundance by injustice got;
How health and temperance bless the rustic swain,
While luxury destroys her pamper'd train.
—Hesiod.
Men live best on moderate means: Nature has dispensed to all men wherewithal to be happy, if mankind did but understand how to use her gifts.—Claudian.
Temperance is a virtue which casts the truest lustre upon the person it is lodged in, and has the most general influence upon all other particular virtues of any that the soul of man is capable of; indeed so general, that there is hardly any noble quality or endowment of the mind, but must own temperance either for its parent or its nurse; it is the greatest strengthener and clearer of reason, and the best preparer of it for religion, the sister of prudence, and the handmaid to devotion.—Dean South.
It is all nonsense about not being able to work without ale and cider and fermented liquors. Do lions and cart-horses drink ale?—Sydney Smith.
Temperance is a bridle of gold; he who uses it rightly, is more like a god than a man.—Burton.
Except thou desire to hasten thine end, take this for a general rule, that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body by wine or spice.—Sir Walter Raleigh.
Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow.—John Neal.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.—Fuller.
If you wish to keep the mind clear and the body healthy, abstain from all fermented liquors.—Sydney Smith.
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty, for in my youth I never did apply hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.—Shakespeare.