The Cigar Quote Primer

Some of the most celebrated sayings about cigars have a long, colorful and sometimes surprising history

Fred R. Shapiro
Posted: January 15, 2008

"I never can understand how anyone can not smoke—it deprives a man of the best part of life...with a good cigar in his mouth a man is perfectly safe, nothing can touch him—literally."
—Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

"I promised myself that if I ever had some money that I would savor a cigar each day after lunch and after dinner. This is the only resolution of my youth that I have kept, and the only realized ambition which has not brought dissolution."
—W. Somerset Maugham, Summing Up

"'Life's a cigar': the wasting body glows;
The head turns white as Kosciusko's snows;
And, with the last soul-fragrance still in air,
The ashes slowly sink in soft repose."
—George G. McCrae, "Life's a Cigar"

"You better take advantage of the good cigars. You don't get much else in that job."
—Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, advice to Vice President Walter Mondale

"I can't stand cigarette smoke…. Cigarette smoking is both expensive and unhealthy. There should be a law against women smoking…. Now take the cigar. Cigars are an expression of the fundamental idea of smoking. A stimulant and a relaxation. A manly vice."
—Victor Sjostrom, lecturing Ingrid Thulin about smoking, Wild Strawberries (film)

"Yes, social friend, I love thee well, In learned doctors' spite; Thy clouds all other clouds dispel, And lap me in delight."
—Charles Sprague, "To My Cigar"

"Call the roller of big cigars, The muscular one, and bid him whip In kitchen cups concupiscent curds."
—Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"

"Fuller's cigar in the night was a beacon warning carefree, frivolous people away. It was plainly a cigar smoked in anger."
—Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House

"It [love] is like a cigar. If it goes out you can light it again, but it never tastes quite the same."
—Lord Wavell, British field marshal

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