Toasts: Over 1,500 Of the Best Toasts, Sentiments, Blessings, and Graces

For anyone who will ever face a sea of expectantly raised glasses, or anyone who is fascinated by words and word-play, this rich compendium of toasts for every occasion will prove as entertaining as it is useful.

The best toasts ever proclaimed (and a few of the worst), funny and sentimental toasts, cynical and heartfelt toasts, old-fashioned and contemporary toasts, justly famous and unjustly forgotten toasts … they’re all here in the latest compilation of verbal fun from wordsmith extraordinaire Paul Dickson. Impossible to put down when browsing and easy to use when looking something up, it’s one of those books that will never gather dust on the shelf.

Weddings, graduations, anniversaries, births (and birthdays), family reunions, business dinners, and other occasions are all included, along with tips for the toastmaster, ways to says “Cheers!” in fifty languages from Albanian to Zulu, and other toasting topics.

Salud!

I drink to your health when I’m with you,

I drink to your health when I’m alone,

I drink to your health so often

I’m beginning to worry about my own.

Here’s to good-byes — that they never be spoken!

Here’s to friendships — may they never be broken!

Drink to the girls and drink to their mothers,

Drink to their fathers and to their brothers;

Toast their dear healths as long as you’re able,

And dream of their charms while you’re under the table.

Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead.

— James Thurber

I used to know a clever toast,

But pshaw! I cannot think it —

So fill your glass to anything

And, bless your souls, I’ll drink it.