A notable, quotable guy: Clinton Fadiman

In most of my (ostensibly) pithy roundups of quotations, the wit and/or wisdom comes from well-known folks. Today, I turn to someone whom I had never heard of before recently stumbling across some of his thoughts.

Clinton Fadiman was an editor, essayist and radio personality for much of the last century. And now I wish I had known, or at least known of, him:

• “A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.”

• “Name me any liquid — except our own blood — that flows more intimately and incessantly through the labyrinth of symbols we have conceived to make our status as human beings, from the rudest peasant wine to the mystery of the Eucharist. To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history.”

• “Wine is alive, and when you offer it to your fellow man, you are offering him life. That is why there are few better gifts to send than a case or two — or a bottle or two — of wine. It is not that when drinking it, they will recall the donor — if you crave such vulgar satisfactions, it is more efficient to send them a chair with a pair of spurs set in the upholstery. It is that, when drinking it, they will become more conscious of themselves, of their own capacity for joy.”

• “To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river history.”