Freedom is like drink. If you take any at all, you might as well take enough to make you happy for a while.

In Dunne’s characteristic, pub-inflected political wit, the line treats “freedom” not as a delicate ideal to be sipped sparingly, but as something whose value is felt only when it is ample enough to change lived experience. The comparison to drink suggests both pleasure and risk: liberty can exhilarate, but it can also unsettle established order, which is why authorities often ration it. The punchline implies that half-measures—token rights, limited reforms, partial emancipation—may be morally and psychologically unsatisfying. If freedom is worth granting or claiming at all, the quote argues, it should be substantial enough to produce real happiness, not merely the appearance of it.