“Four things put a man beside himself—women, tobacco, cards, and wine”
“Four things put a man beside himself—women, tobacco, cards, and wine” is an old Spanish proverb, cited in print since at least 1726. A variant of this proverb replaces “women” with “bulls” and mentions this is favored by a “man from San Bernardino.”
Wikiquote: Tabaco
Proverbios en español
Tabaco, toros, naipes y vino, llevan al hombre a San Bernardino.
Nota: San Bernardino es un asilo de Madrid.
Google Books
A New Dictionary Spanish and English and English and Spanish
By John Stevens
London: Printed for J. Darby, et al.
1726
Pg. ?:
PROV. Quatro cosas sacan al hombre de tino, el muger, la tabaco, naypes y vino: Four things put a man beside himself; a woman, snuff, cards and wine.
Google Books
A Dictionary of Spanish Proverbs
By John Collins
London: Printed by S. Brooke
1823
Pp. 288-289:
Quatro cosas sacan al hombre de tino, la muger, el tabaco naypes y vino.— “Four things put a man beside himself—women, tobacco, cards, and wine.”
Women and wine, game and deceit,
Make our wealth small, and our wants great.
Google Books
A Polyglott of Foreign Proverbs, comprising French, Italian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Danish, with English Translations
By Henry George Bohn
London: Henry G. Bonn
1857
Pg. 245:
Quatro cosas sacan al hombre de tino, la muger, el tabaco naypes y vino.
Four things put a man beside himself— women, tobacco, cards, and wine.
Chronicling America
28 January 1860, Daily Intelligencer (Wheeling, WV), pg. 1, col. 4:
”... Women are as fickle as April weather, and they are well placed first among the ‘four things that put a man beside himself—women, tobacco, cards, and wine.’”
13 April 1902, The Sunday Herald (Boston, MA), “Wit and Wisdom in Proverbs,” pg. 46, col. 5:
SPANISH
(...)
Four things put a man beside himself—women, tobacco, cards and wine.
Google Books
The Routledge Book of World Proverbs
By Jon R. Stone
NewYork, NY: Routledge
2006
Pg. 278:
Four things put a man beside himself: women, tobacco, cards, and wine. (Spanish)
Twitter
Petra Llamas García
@PetraLlamas
Tabaco, toros, naipes y vino, llevan al hombre a San Bernardino (Es un asilo de Madrid). Refranero.
9:06 AM - 7 Aug 11
Twitter
Carrol Inglish
@CarrolInglish
Four things put a man beside himself - women, tobacco, cards, and wine. - Spanish Proverb
3:03 PM - 18 Aug 13