“Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey”

“Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey” is a saying that has been printed on many images.
     
“I want to give you some personal advice. Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whisky. Both should be investigated as quickly as possible” (spoken by American novelist Ernest Hemingway) was printed in the story “My Bargain with Hemingway” by William Lederer (1912-2009) in the Reader’s Digest of July 1967. The incident supposedly occurred in Chungking, China, in 1942. “Whiskey” is usually the spelling for “whisky” in the quotation.
 
Hemingway apparently gave the advice again. “P.O.V. writer Bert Sugar recalls the author’s advice over a drink in 1956 (‘Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey’ )” was printed in the Atlanta (GA) Constitution on July 13, 1999.
     
     
Wikipedia: William Lederer     
William Julius Lederer, Jr. (March 31, 1912 – December 5, 2009) was an American author and naval officer.
 
Wikipedia: Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works.
     
Internet Archive
July 1967, Reader’s Digest, pg. ?:
My Bargain with
Hemingway
In which a budding writer is taught more
about life than about letters
By W. J. Lederer
(...)
It was at this time (25 years ago—ed.) that Ernest Hemingway came to Chungking. Like many another, he suffered from what we called “Szechuan drought”—a great thirst for alcohol when none was available. One day he came down to my gunboat. “I hear you have two cases of booze,” he said.
(...)
“I want to give you some personal advice. Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whisky. Both should be investigated as quickly as possible.”
     
Newspapers.com
10 March 1995, The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, FL), TGIF sec., pg. 14, col. 2 ad:
JOHN BULL
ENGLISH PUB
“Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whisky”
-Ernest Hemingway
-A Life Story 1969
 
13 July 1999, Atlanta (GA) Constitution, “The Newsstand” by Don O’Briant, pg. C2”
Manly tribute: On the anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s 100th birthday, P.O.V. ($2.99) pays tribute to Papa as the man who best represented a macho century. Author Budd Schulberg writes of his early rivalry with Hemingway (“You could call the man a lot of things—- but you couldn’t call him a coward”), and P.O.V. writer Bert Sugar recalls the author’s advice over a drink in 1956 (“Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey”).
     
To Have And Have Another
The Hemingway Cocktail Companion
Posted on July 30, 2011 by philgreene61
Welcome to To Have and Have Another – the Hemingway Cocktail Companion, the blog behind the book, which will be published in 2012 by Perigee Books, an imprint of Penguin Group.
(...)
On another occasion in Chungking, Hemingway met a young Navy lieutenant named Lederer, who purchased two cases of whiskey at an auction.  Hemingway tried to persuade Lederer to sell him some, but he declined; he was saving them for a farewell party.  Hemingway adopted the role of Epicurious, and advised him to “never delay kissing a pretty girl … or opening a bottle of whiskey.”  He made a deal with Lederer, swapping six bottles of whiskey for six writing lessons.  At the end of the sixth lesson, Hemingway told Lederer that a writer above all had to be compassionate, and never laugh at another’s mistakes.  Further, he had to roll with the punches, and bounce back.  He then suggested that the young man go home and sample his whiskey.
 
When Lederer did so, he discovered that he’d been swindled; the bottles contained tea, not whiskey.  “Hemingway had known the truth for nearly a week.  Yet he had neither laughed at the victim nor evaded his part of the bargain.  Lederer salted his story away for twenty years.  From that day in Chungking he always remembered Hemingway as a civilized man.”
   
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@DailyHemingway
Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey.
11:36 AM · Nov 26, 2016·Twitter for iPhone
 
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David Voth
@SexCigarsBooze
Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of #whiskey.
~ Ernest Hemingway
(This is also shown on an image.—ed.)
8:45 AM · May 15, 2022·Twitter for iPhone