Wine, women and song

"Wine, women, and song" is a hendiatris that endorses hedonistic lifestyles or behaviors. A more modern form of the idea is often expressed as "sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll", a phrase popularized by British singer Ian Dury in his song of the same title.

• Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra;
  Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vina, Venus.
  • Bathing, wine and sex ruin our bodies;
    But bathing, wine and sex are what life is all about.
  • Epitaph, in the CIL, vol. 6, no. 15258
  • Tr. Paul Chrystal, When in Rome (2017), epigraph

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  • A book, a woman, and a flask of wine:
    The three make heaven for me; it may be thine
       Is some sour place of singing cold and bare—
    But then, I never said thy heaven was mine.
  • Omar Khayyam (d. 1131), Rubáiyát
  • Tr. Richard Le Gallienne (1897; rev. 1902)

• دویار زیرک و از باده کهن دو منی فراغتی و کتابی و گوشه چمنی
  • Two sweethearts, two flasks of old wine, a book of verse and a cosy corner in the garden.
  • Hafez (d. 1390), Divan, no. 477 (ed. A. M. Qazvini and Q. Ghani)
  • Tr. Gareth Jones, The Complete Poetry Guide and Workbook (Lulu Press, 2012), p. 190

• Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib, und Gesang,
  Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang.
  • He who loves not wine, woman, and song,
    Remains a fool his whole life long.
  • Attributed to Martin Luther (d. 1546) by Ludwig Uhland in Die Geisterkelter. Found in Luther’s Tischreden, Proverbs, at end. Credited to J. H. Voss by Carl Christian Redlich, Die poetischen Beiträge zum Wandsbecker Bothen (Hamburg, 1871), p. 67. Reported in Hoyt's (1922), p. 473. Variants given in Georg Büchmann, Geflügelte Worte (Berlin, 1892), pp. 78, 79

• Poetry and pistols, wine and women.
  • Attributed to Edward Lysaght (d. 1810) in Celtic Irish Songs and Song-writers (1885), p. 58

• Give me women, wine and snuff
  Until I cry out "hold, enough!"
  You may do so sans objection
  Till the day of resurrection;
  For bless my beard they aye shall be
  My belovèd Trinity.
  • John Keats, "Give me Women, Wine and Snuff" (wr. 1816; pub. 1884)

• Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue,
  Deutscher Wein, und deutscher Sang.
  • German women, German loyalty,
    German wine, and German song.
  • August Heinrich Hoffmann, "Das Lied der Deutschen" (1841), st. 2

• Cigareetes and whusky and wild, wild women
  They'll drive you crazy, they'll drive you insane.
  • "Cigareetes, Whisky and Wild, Wild Women" (1934)

• Sex and drugs and rock and roll
  Is all my brain and body need
  Sex and drugs and rock and roll
  Is very good indeed.
  • Ian Dury, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" (wr. 1976; pub. 1977)