25 Quotes About Prohibition

Although there are many reasons to abstain from certain behaviors, there are also instances when people choose to do things that go against the norm. For example, some people choose to smoke, drink alcohol, or eat meat even though they know it’s unhealthy. There are many beliefs that go against the norm and although we may not agree with them, we must respect those who choose to live their lives differently. Here we have collected some of the best quotes on prohibition and its effect on society.

1
There has never been any art or literature without drink and there never will be.... Unless something is done about the matter [prohibition] this country is going to the dogs. There has been no development in our art or literature for 30 or 40 years. Joseph Pennell
2
Its magnificence was indescribable, and its magnitude was inconceivable. She felt overwhelmed in the presence of its greatness. Pg 87 Mona Rodriguez
3
Confession is good for the soul even after the soul has been claimed” (p. 381). Mona Rodriguez
4
Why are you perpetuating a childhood you grew up despising? Pg 57 Mona Rodriguez
5
With drug use related harms, explanatory models are often presented as predictive tools, even though they ‘are [rarely if ever] predictive of consequent behavior’ or outcomes. Hence, we feel confident in asserting at outset, that prohibition based approaches in drug policy lack a sound basis in empirical research (despite sounding logical, i.e. remove drugs or the means of their production and less drugs will be available to users, thus minimising or eliminating harm), and are not animated by well-defined goals, goals that are not only consistent with the ethical and humanitarian aims of public health policy in general, but also with the fundamental principles of democracy) such as empowering or enabling those best placed to act, but by beliefs, assumptions, hypotheses and expectations. Daniel Waterman
6
His words are so slippery they might slide right off the page. Jami Attenberg
7
They talk about prohibition in America. What can one do in a country such as that?   ' What does one do in America when one is sad - without alcohol?' asks Zwonimir. Joseph Roth
8
You must know everything that God has forbidden you so as to be able to avoid it, for the one who does not recognize evil falls into it. Unknown
9
Understand now, I'm purely a fiction writer and do not profess to be an earnest student of political science, but I believe strongly that such a law as one prohibiting liquor is foolish, and all the writers, keenly interested in human welfare whom I know, laugh at the prohibition law. F. Scott Fitzgerald
10
All laws which can be violated without doing any one any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they from doing anything to control the desires and passions of men that, on the contrary, they direct and incite men's thoughts the more toward those very objects, for we always strive toward what is forbidden and desire the things we are not allowed to have. And men of leisure are never deficient in the ingenuity needed to enable them to outwit laws framed to regulate things which cannot be entirely forbidden.. He who tries to determine everything by law will foment crime rather than lessen it. . Baruch Spinoza
11
It is easier to exploit and manipulate people if they are fearful or confused, (and discouraged from trusting their own judgment). Our investigation identifies the ‘policy of prohibition’ as a major source of ignorance, fear and confusion concerning psychoactive substances, their uses, users, effects and outcomes. Daniel Waterman
12
Prohibition is the trigger of crime. Ian Fleming
13
Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use.. Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce [28g] of marijuana. Jimmy Carter
14
Federal and state laws (should) be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use. Richard M. Nixon
15
All right. Then I'll begin... It's the tale of a man who drank the demon's liquor and gained immortality. That miserable man's lonely, lonely yarn. The stage is Prohibition-era New York. It's the story of the peculiar destiny surrounding the death sudden appearance of the liquor of immortality and of the spiral of people who found themselves drawn into it... Ryohgo Narita
16
Our way would seem quite familiar to the Romans, more by far than the Greek way. Socrates in the Symposium, when Alcibiades challenged him to drink two quarts of wine, could have done so or not as he chose, but the diners-out of Horace's day had no such freedom. He speaks often of the master of the drinking, who was always appointed to dictate how much each man was to drink. Very many unseemly dinner parties must have paved the way for that regulation. A Roman in his cups would've been hard to handle, surly, quarrelsome, dangerous. No doubt there had been banquets without number which had ended in fights, broken furniture, injuries, deaths. Pass a law then, the invariable Roman remedy, to keep drunkenness within bounds. Of course it worked both ways: everybody was obliged to empty the same number of glasses and the temperate man had to drink a great deal more than he wanted, but whenever laws are brought in to regulate the majority who have not abused their liberty for the sake of the minority who have, just such results come to pass. Indeed, any attempt to establish a uniform average in that stubbornly individual phenomenon, human nature, will have only one result that can be foretold with certainty: it will press hardest on the best. Edith Hamilton
17
ShanTu said that we must set the soul free from the body and its lusts. Having thus got rid of the foolishness of the flesh, we shall be pure. While an admirable goal, the sisterhood has not found this practical. For whatever purpose, body and soul are joined. Denying one's bodily lusts is about as effective as prohibition, which is to say not effective at all. Susan Cartwright
18
It’s finding out where we came from that helps guide us to where we are going. Mona Rodriguez
19
The amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans simply makes no sense - the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social energy. Unknown
20
The legalization of marijuana is not a dangerous experiment — the prohibition is the experiment, and it has failed dramatically, with millions of victims all around the world. Sebastian Marincolo
21
There has never been a 'war on drugs'! In our history we can only see an ongoing conflict amongst various drug users — and producers. In ancient Mexico the use of alcohol was punishable by death, while the ritualistic use of mescaline was highly worshipped. In 17th century Russia, tobacco smokers were threatened with mutilation or decapitation, alcohol was legal. In Prussia, coffee drinking was prohibited to the lower classes, the use of tobacco and alcohol was legal. . Sebastian Marincolo
22
Understand now, I'm purely a fiction writer and do not profess to be an earnest student of political science, but I believe strongly that such a law as one prohibiting liquor is foolish. F. Scott Fitzgerald
23
Though at times interested in reforms, notably prohibition (I have never tasted alcoholic liquor), I was inclined to be bored by ethical casuistry; since I believed conduct to be a matter of taste and breeding, with virtue, delicacy, and truthfulness as symbols of gentility. Of my word and honour I was inordinately proud, and would permit no reflections to be cast upon them. I thought ethics too obvious and commonplace to be scientifically discussed, and considered philosophy solely in its relation to truth and beauty. I was, and still am, pagan to the core. . H.P. Lovecraft
24
The ban on sports betting does exactly what Prohibition did. It makes criminals rich. James Surowiecki