Sunday 13 February 2011

A Piping Hot Pictorial Preamble

A day into the semi conversion to pipe smoking & far too early for a contemplative perspective. Suffice to say it's going swimmingly! 


I hated tobacco. I could have almost lent my support to any institution that had for its object the putting of tobacco smokers to death...I now feel that smoking in moderation is a comfortable and laudable practice, and is productive of good. There is no more harm in a pipe than in a cup of tea. You may poison yourself by drinking too much green tea, and kill yourself by eating too many beefsteaks. For my part, I consider that tobacco, in moderation, is a sweetener and equalizer of the temper.

~Thomas Henry Huxley~



There is no composing draught like the draught through the tube of a pipe."

~Captain Frederick Marryat~















"It is not enough to fill a pipe and put it to the mouth and set fire to it, for even the country bumpkin knows as much. It is only correct to hold it with the left hand, have the right hand provided with the stopper, impress the onlookers with majestic mien, sit in the proper attitude on the chair, and finally, to take enough time for each pipe and not treat with hasty irreverence this heavenly food."
-Peter Burmann on pipe etiquette, c. 1710



“Second-hand smoke is claimed to cause many deaths and is the basis for tyrannical curbs on offices and pubs. This figure is arrived at by guesswork, inspired by hysteria, and masquerades as scientific ‘proof’ – a process which characterises our age.”



"Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs. Ham and eggs, and after these a pipe -- an old, rank, delicious pipe -- ham and eggs and scenery, a 'down grade,' a flying coach, a fragrant pipe and a contented heart--these make happiness. It is what all the ages have struggled for."
-- Mark Twain, Chapter XVII of "Roughing It"



I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgement in all human affairs."  Albert Einstein, 1950





Smoke your pipe and be silent; there’s only wind and smoke in the world



"Pipe smoking is the most protracted of all forms of tobacco consumption. it may explain why pipe smokers are generally regarded as patient men--and philosophers."
-Jerome E. Brooks, from The Mighty Leaf, Tobacco Through the Centuries

 


"I have some friends, some honest friends, and honest friends are few;
My pipe of briar, my open fire, A book that's not too new."
-Robert Service

 



 
"The fact is, squire, the moment a man takes to a pipe, he becomes a philosopher. It's the poor man's friend; it calms the mind, soothes the temper, and makes a man patient under difficulties. It has made more good men, good husbands, kind masters, indulgent fathers, than any other blessed thing on this universal earth."
-"Sam Slick, the clockmaker"

 

Now put that in your pipe . . . . .

1 comment:

  1. heard all these quotes before, but can never hear them enough. as I sit here, with pipe in hand, it brings a tear to me old eye that there is still respect for the ol' piper in the world.

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