Famous lines about happy hour
Throughout history, people have looked for the lights of a tavern or a bar like a beacon in the night. Even today, they mean rest and refreshment for travelers after a long day on the road. Lighted tavern and bar signs also came to mean warmth and companionship, and those are the things we look for now in a bar. We walk in, we greet old friends and meet new ones, we feel at ease and we relax.

Happy hour is the best time to do that. It’s the end of the workday, but not late at night. Happy Hour isn’t for the party crowd. It’s for the sociable crowd. It’s the time to unwind and chill down.

Or as Ernest Hemingway put it, “Drinking is a way of ending the day.”

Happy hour quotes
That’s a good one! But Happy hour has inspired many famous lines. Drew Carey once explained that it was a kind of therapy when he said, “Oh, you hate your job? Why didn’t you say so? There’s a support group for that. It’s called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.”

And women, you know that sometimes when it all hits the wall, you need to nod in agreement with Bette Davis, who noted that, “There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne.”

One of the greatest odes to Happy Hour comes from the great noir writer Raymond Chandler, who described it as follows:

“I like bars just after they open for the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny and the barkeep is giving himself that last look in the mirror to see if his tie is straight and his hair is smooth. I like the neat bottles on the bar back and the lovely shining glasses and the anticipation. I like to watch the man mix the first one of the evening and put it down on a crisp mat and put the little folded napkin beside it. I like to taste it slowly. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar – that’s wonderful.”

Quotes about martinis
Once you’ve found your special bar, what do you choose to drink?

The writer Robert Benchley once quipped that he needed to “get out of this wet coat and into a dry martini.”

Speaking of martinis, Noel Coward once said that, “A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin and then waving it in the general direction of Italy.”

And Gerald Ford, as President, once gave a speech where he paid tribute to a great American tradition almost as hallowed as happy hour when he said, “The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?”

We’ll end the martini round with Dorothy Parker: “I like a martini, but two is the most. Three I’m under the table, four I’m under the host.”

Martinis are iconic, but they are not the only cocktails or alcoholic beverages to inspire such great wit.

Quotes about beer
“He was a wise man who invented beer.” We can’t argue with that one, especially since it was the Greek philosopher Plato who said it. Let’s just assume that this time, as in most cases, he knew what he was talking about.

Going up a few centuries, we can see that beer continues to win fans. Thomas Jefferson wisely noted that, “Beer, if drunk in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit and promotes health.”

But the greatest tribute to the hops and barley comes from Martin Luther. Yes, the same guy who started the Protestant Reformation and nailed some documents to a church door.

Luther was a busy guy, but he clearly had time to throw back some brews, which led him to say this:

“Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long does not sin; whoever does not sin enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!”

Beer drinkers, it looks like we will see you all in the good place.

We’ll leave the last word on beer with humorist Dave Barry, who wrote, “Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.”

Quotes about wine
Wine has been with us for centuries. And for just as long, people have praised it.

Ernest Hemingway was no slouch when it came to beer or whiskey, but he reserved special praise for the fruit of the vine. As he put it, “Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”

The poet John Keats shared that love of wine, once declaring that all he needed to be happy were the simple things in life: “Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.”

Benjamin Franklin was once ambassador to France, which is probably where he developed an appreciation for wine. Whatever inspired him, there’s no denying the sentiment behind his statement that, “The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars.”

If you think the universe would be better off with more wine, you probably wholeheartedly agree with the wine writer Jim Broadbent, who said, “Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures.” It’s hard to argue with that one.

The poet Paulo Coelho gives us wisdom about wine as a symbol for all that life has to offer. “Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup,” he wrote. “All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.”

Quotes about whiskey
Are you a whiskey drinker? Then you might find yourself in agreement with the novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler, who believed that, “There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren’t as good as others.”

And Alexander Fleming, the famous Scotsman who discovered penicillin, certainly knew something about the drink’s medicinal qualities. As he said, “A good gulp of hot whiskey at bedtime – it’s not very scientific, but it helps.”

Not to be outdone, the great screen goddess Ava Gardner once declared that there was no point getting old if she couldn’t enjoy her favorite tipple: ”I wish to live to 150 years old, but the day I die, I wish it to be with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.”

We’ll close with a sage piece of advice from the actor W.C. Fields, who said, “Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.”

Quotes about drinking and friendship
As you head out to enjoy a happy hour with old friends and new, think about the way a drink or two has eased people’s ability to relax and open up with each other. As these happy hour quotes show, it’s a time-honored way to ease into new friendships.

And as you go on to our next happy hour, take courage from the words of the poet Charles Baudelaire, who reminded us that life is for the living. “One should always be drunk,” he wrote. “That’s all that matters…But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose. But get drunk.”