Famous Quotes from Historical Cigar Lovers

Cigars have been around for a long time – since before Christopher Columbus brought them back to Europe from the Caribbean– and a lot of good stuff has been said about cigars. Here are some of our favorite quotes from historical cigar lovers:

Franz Liszt

The popular 19th-century Hungarian composer once claimed, “A good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world.”

Alfred de Musset

The French dramatist, poet, and novelist once said, “Any cigar smoker is a friend, because I know how he feels.”

King Edward VII

QueenVictoria’s son, King Edward VII, loved smoking cigars, even though his mother hated them. Legend has it that after her death at the end of a dinner party Edward told his male guests, “Gentlemen, you may smoke,” thereby ending Victoria’s ban on cigars. A line of inexpensive American cigars has long been named King Edward in honor of his love of cigars.

Mark Twain

The author best known for “Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was devoted to his cigars, and was rarely seen without one. In a letter to Dr. Edward C. Rushmore regarding Cuban Crown Jewel cigars (now Dominican cigars), Twain wrote, “There is no other cigar that can make a person want to go away and get by himself and think this life over and wonder if it is altogether worthwhile… Any man of fine intelligence who is acquainted with Crown Jewels prizes them above any other gems and saves them and hoards them.”

Twain is also famously noted as saying, “If smoking is not allowed in heaven, I shall not go” and “Eating and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man’s enjoyment of his cigar.”

Sigmund Freud

When asked about the phallic shape of the cigar, the father of psychoanalysis said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

Groucho Marx

One of the most recognizable of American comedians, Groucho Marx was almost always seen with a cigar. He once said, “A woman is an occasional pleasure but a cigar is always a smoke.”

George Burns

More recently, comedian George Burns said, “Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman – or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.”

Have any good stogie quotes to add to this list? Feel free to post them below in the Comments section, and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for all the latest cigar news, updates, and reviews.