There is this to be said in favor of drinking, that it takes the drunkard first out of society, then out of the world.
Source: Journal entry 1866; in The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 16, ed. Ronald Bosco and Glen Johnson, 1982.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, (May 25 1803-1882), US philosopher, poet, essayist; He was the main spokesman of his time for moral optimism and belief in the individual: Self-Reliance, 1844.