The Art of Toast: Happy New Year!

Compiled and edited by Dr Abe V Rotor

Toasts for the New Year

The book is closed...
The year is done,
The pages full
Of tasks begun.
A little joy...
A little care
Along with dreams
Are written there.
This new day brings
Another year,
Renewing hope...
Dispelling care.
And may we find
Before the end,
A deep content...
Another friend.
   - Arch Ward, Chicago Daily Tribune

I wish you health
I wish you wealth,
I wish you gold in store,
I wish you Heaven upon earth -
What could I wish for more?"
- Anonymous

New Year Quotations: 

One of the richest rituals at the closing of each old year is to count the roster of my friends in the mood of a poet: "And always as the Old Year ends, I clasp my rosary of friends and pause to breathe a grateful prayer, for every bead of friendship there."
- Anonymous  

"Time has no division to mark its passage; there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins, it is only we mortals who ring the bells and fire off the pistils," - Thomas Mann

What do you say when you offer a toast? Here are some examples to a particular occasion.

A. Among old friends
"To the old, long life and treasure;
To the young, all health and pleasure
- Ben Johnson

Here's that you may live a hundred happy years,
And I may live a hundred less one day,
For I don't care to live any longer,
When you good fellows have all passed away."
- Richard Carle

B. When it come's to Love
Here's to Love - the only fire against which there is no insurance."

Here's to Love which makes time pass and
Here's to time which makes Love pass.

Let those now who never loved before,
And those who always loved, now love the more.

C. For good health
Here's to your good health! You make Age curious, Time furious,
and all of us envious.

Here's health and happiness to you.
May you always possess the former and find the latter.

D. Good Luck
May misfortune follow you all the days of your life
and never overtake you.

May Dame Fortune ever smile on you
But never her daughter - Miss Fortune.

E. To Women
Here's to woman - who came after Man, and who has been after him ever since.

Here's to woman who is as old as she looks;
and here's to man who is old when he stops looking.

Trivia: What is it that you eat at breakfast and drink at dinner?
Answer: Toast
Acknowledgment: Judge Jacob M Braude: Speaker's Encyclopedia of Humor, Prentice-Hall, NJ; Jokes, Quotes and One-liners for public speakers, HV Procknow and HV Procknow Jr; Photo credit: Internet