Often people display a curious respect for a man drunk, rather like the respect of simple races for the insane. . . There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions.
I'll tell you," said Beatty, smiling at his cards. "That made you for a little while a drunkard. Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you're ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. I know. I've been through it all.