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“The harsh, useful things of the world, from pulling teeth to digging potatoes, are best done by men who are as starkly sober as so many convicts in the death-house, but the lovely and useless things, the charming and exhilarating things, are best done by men with, as the phrase is, a few sheets in the wind.” H.L. Mencken certainly laid it out that drink is a good news – bad news opportunity. Sure, it depends; but there definitely are pros and cons.
The famous Anon. said, “The first thing in the human personality that dissolves in alcohol is dignity;” but Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Wine is bottled poetry.” Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller said, “When the wine goes in, strange things come out;” but Frank Sinatra said, “I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.” Even Shakespeare weighed in on the thumbs down side, “O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts;” but no less an authority than Dave Barry put in his two cents worth on the other side of the debate, “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.” – Let’s give Homer Simpson today’s last word on the topic, “Beer is the cause and solution to all of life’s problems. – Cheers!
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There is a French Proverb that says, “Anger is a bad counselor.” Although anger compels you to action, it’s like Benjamin Franklin warned, “Anger and folly walk cheek by jowl.” Will Rogers put it this way, “People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing;” and Robert G. Ingersoll like this, “Anger blows out the lamp of the mind.”
Should a Korean Proverb be more your style, try this one, “If you kick a stone in anger, you’ll hurt your own foot.” Wherever in the world you seek your wisdom, indulging in anger is a major no-no. Even Horace gave it a thumbs-down, “Anger is short-lived madness.” Ambrose Bierce said, “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”
OK, go ahead and lose your temper if you must; but at least take a quick count to 10 as you “consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.” (Marcus Antonius)