Quote of the moment: Martin Luther, on wine, women and song


Martin Luther, by Lucas Cranch

Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib, und Gesang, Der bleibt ein Narr sein Lebenlang.

Who loves not wine, women and song, remains a fool his whole life long.

Attributed in Matthias Claudius, Der Wandsbecker Bothe (1775).

When I lived in Washington, D.C., I had a favorite Chinese restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia. The first time I took Kathryn to the place, the fortune in my fortune cookie was that line quoted from Martin Luther. Of course, the cookie didn’t attribute it to anyone.

Now, a few months* after we married, she got me the Yale Book of Quotations for a birthday present. Browsing, I came across that line. Who’d imagine Luther to have said such a thing?

* About 317 months, actually. Time flies when you’re having fun.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Famous quotes, Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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