wine
National Wine Drink Day is the time to speak your mind, because "In vino, veritas." Getty Images

While National Wine Drink Day may just be known as "Thursday" to many connoisseurs around the world, it's a fitting excuse to try a new vintage, have a party or, better yet, enjoy some fine literature about getting drunk. For the aficionado in us all, here are 10 of the best quotes on wine (and a couple on general drunkenness delivered for this special day). An inordinate number of these sayings, collected by BrainyQuote, First We Feast and Wine Folly, were pronounced by Frenchmen or lovers of France. Just sayin'.

1. “I'm like old wine. They don't bring me out very often, but I'm well preserved.” – Rose Kennedy

2. “Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.” – Benjamin Franklin

3. “One should always be drunk. That's all that matters...But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.” – Charles Baudelaire

4. “There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.” – Colette

5. “Either give me more wine or leave me alone.” – Rumi

6. “Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.” – Ernest Hemingway

7. “In victory, you deserve Champagne. In defeat, you need it.” – Napoleon

8. “Give me wine to wash me clean of the weather-stains of cares.” – Mark Twain

9. “Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” – Paulo Coelho

10. “Men are like wine: Some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.” – Pope John XXIII