Absinthe Quotes

“Let me be mad, then, by all means! mad with the madness of Absinthe, the wildest, most luxurious madness in the world! Vive la folie! Vive l'amour! Vive l'animalisme! Vive le Diable!”
― Marie Corelli, Wormwood: A Drama of Paris

“Absinthe now, absent never”
― Sian Lavinia Anais Valeriana, Lavinia - Volume One

“In the days when I was ambitious I worked out a very pretty little plan for conquering the whole earth and rearranging things as they ought to be; and when, in the end, everything became so good it almost began to be boring, then I was going to stuff my pockets with as much money as I could lay hands on and creep away, vanish in some cosmopolis and sit at a corner cafe and drink absinthe and enjoy seeing how everything went to the devil as soon as I wasn't on the scene any more.”
― Hjalmar Söderberg, Doctor Glas

“It is the return of a dog to his vomit.”
― Paul Verlaine, Confessions

“It was like washing down a bucket of peyote with a vatful of absinthe.”
― Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan, Vol. 2: Lust for Life

“I do not like anis," Pablo said.
The acrid smell had carried across the table and he had picked out the one familiar component.
"Good," said Robert Jordan. "Because there is very little left."
"What drink is that?" the gypsy asked.
"A medicine," Robert Jordan said. "Do you want to taste it?"
"What is it for?"
"For everything," Robert Jordan said. "It cures everything. If you have anything wrong this will cure it.”
― Hemingway Ernest

“Absinthe, or wormwood, the liquorice-flavoured, plant-based liqueur, had been popular in France throughout the 19th century. Though the drink was of Swiss origin, heavy tax on import had encouraged H.L. Pernod to start producing it commercially in France at the end of the 18th century.12 It was a tremendous success, and as the 19th century unfolded, its popularity soared. Exceedingly potent, it was closer to a soft drug than a drink. ‘The drunkenness it gives does not resemble any known drunkenness,’ bemoaned Alfred Delvau. ‘It makes you lose your footing right away […] You think you are headed towards infinity, like all great dreamers, and you are only headed towards incoherence.’13 In excess, absinthe could have a fatal effect on the nervous system, and by the time Maria started attending the bars and cafés where it was served, it had become a national curse. A favourite drink among the working classes precisely because of its relative cheapness for the effect produced, absinthe became the scapegoat for a host of social ills, not least the Commune.
(...)
Absinthe found a dedicated following among artists, writers and poets (including Charles Baudelaire), for whom the liquor became the entrancing ‘green fairy’. Its popularity in these circles was due primarily to its intoxicating effect, but also because its consumption was accompanied by a curious ritual which appealed to quirky individuals with a taste for the extraordinary. To counteract the drink’s inherent bitterness, a sugar lump was placed on a special spoon with a hole in it, which was held above the glass while water was poured over it, with the effect of sweetening the absinthe. Not surprisingly, absinthe flowed freely through the bars and cafés of Montmartre.”
― Catherine Hewitt, Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon

“- Tacksam för att de med lagen på sin sida introducerat en i detta elände, fött en med dålig mat, slagit en, förtryckt en, förödmjukat en, motsatt sig ens önskningar. Vill ni tro att det fattas en revolution till? Nej, två! Varför dricker absint? Ni är rädd för den? Å! Se, den bär ju Genèvekorset! Den läker de sårade på slagfältet, vänner och fiender; den dövar smärtan, förslöar tanken, borttager minnet, förkväver alla ädla känslor, som narra människan att begå dårskaper, och slutar med att släcka förnuftets ljus. Vet ni vad förnuftets ljus är? Det är för det första en fras, för det andra ett irrbloss, en lyktgubbe, ni vet sådana där sken som irra över platser, där fisk legat och ruttnat och alstrat fosforväten; förnuftets ljus är fosforväte, alstrad av den grå hjärnsubstansen.”
― August Strindberg, Röda Rummet

“I should punch him."
She looked absolutely thrilled. "Could you?"
"Of course I could," he said, vaguely offended. He held up a hand. Fisted it. "I have hands." He turned his wrist to examine his fist from multiple angles. It was very satisfactory. "Big ones."
"Yes, you do." In the dim light, Sylvie's wide eyes looked more black than hazel. "Huge. I've noticed that before." The last words dropped, low and husky.
Sexy.
"Have you?" Deep. Gravelly.”
― Lucy Parker, Battle Royal

“That's the wormwood," Robert Jordan told him. "In this, the real absinthe, there is wormwood. It's supposed to rot your brain out but I don't believe it. It only changes the ideas. You should pour water into it very slowly, a few drops at a time. But I poured it into the water.”
― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

“Manet also had an argument with Degas, the end result being that they each returned paintings that they had previous given to each other.”
― Doris Lanier, Absinthe the Cocaine of the Nineteenth Century: A History of the Hallucinogenic Drug and Its Effect on Artitsts and Writers in Europe and the United

“A glass of absinthe is as poetical as anything in the world. What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?”
― Oscar Wilde Centre