I never drink. I cannot do it, on equal terms with others. It costs them only one day; but me three,—the first in sinning, the second in suffering, and the third in repenting.

The same indulgence carries different prices for different people, and the price is yours to count, not the room’s. What costs someone else an evening might cost you the next three days: the doing, the recovering, the self-reproach afterwards. Declining on those terms is not weakness, it is arithmetic.

Think of one thing you keep going along with because everyone else seems fine with it. Total the real cost to you, including the days on the other side. If the number is higher for you, you can say so without making a confession of it.