Life's Pleasures Quote by Eric Bristow

There is a whole working-class philosophy crammed into Bristow's half-sensible warning: indulgence is fine right up to the point it ruins your aim. Coming from a darts celebrity, the line lands as both locker-room joke and blunt occupational advice. It's not temperance dressed up as morality; it's pragmatism, delivered with the sly wink of someone who knows the pub is part of the sport's ecosystem, not a scandalous add-on.

The intent is comic self-management. Bristow isn't preaching sobriety so much as setting a functional limit: drink, socialize, take the edge off, but don't sabotage the one thing you're there to do. The phrase "otherwise you can't see" turns intoxication into a literal performance problem, and "what you're throwing at" is wonderfully double-edged. On the surface, it's the dartboard. Underneath, it gestures at the broader target: opponents, expectations, hecklers, the pressure to entertain. It's a reminder that the crowd's myth of the hard-drinking champion has a catch. Even in a culture that romanticizes excess, skill still demands a baseline of control.

Context matters because darts, especially in Bristow's era, sold a particular fantasy of masculinity: beer, banter, and effortless precision. This quote punctures the fantasy without rejecting it. It keeps the pub-room camaraderie intact while quietly insisting on professionalism. The wit is that the line pretends to be permissive ("can't drink too many") while actually drawing the only boundary that counts to a competitor: if you can't see the target, you are no longer the star, you're just another guy at the bar.