“Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol”

“Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol” is a saying that dates to the Prohibition era in 1928, when it appeared in the newspaper comic strip “Flapper Fanny says.” The saying was credited to authors Graeme and Sarah Lorimer in a 1937 Reader’s Digest. A currently popular version of the saying is “Many things can be preserved in alcohol. Dignity is not one of them.”
 
Another saying about things preserved in alcohol is “Alcohol is a good preservative for everything but brains.”
 
 
24 April 1928, Chester (PA) Times, “Flapper Fanny Says” comic strip, pg. 6, col. 5:
Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol.
 
Google Books
The Reader’s Digest
Volumes 30-31
1937
Pg. 82:
Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol. — Graeme and Sarah Lorimer
 
Google News Archive
9 July 1937, Mount Washington News (Pittsburgh, PA), “Thinking It Over,” pg. 2, col. 6:
Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol.
   
Google Books
A.A. Grapevine
Alcoholics Anonymous
Volume 16
1959
Pg. 12:
Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol
 
Google Books
Children of the Stars:
A daily galaxy of shining thoughts from the past and present
By Laura Mundy Kinkel
New York, NY: Vantage Press
1967
Pg. 21:
Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol.
Graeme (and Sarah) Lorimer
 
10 February 1976, El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, “Drinking” by Norton Mockridge, sec. B, pg. 3, col. 2:
“A lot of people who drink too much are dignified when sober, but remember—dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol.”
 
2 April 1978, Seattle (WA) Times, “A word from the wise, as the sayings go” by Walt Evans, pg. A10, col. 1:
“Dignity is one thing that can’t be preserved in alcohol”
 
That’s just SO true
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Many things can be preserved in alcohol. Dignity is not one of them.