Not sure how I managed to miss this over the years:
Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through mere perversity do men run after it.
~ William James, 1902
It's true. It's not the whole story--drunkenness has been known to do a few other, less appealing, things now and again--but there is truth to it.
