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Quotations about Tea

Related Quotes Coffee Stress Morning Meditation

I'm sure these quotations about tea don't even begin to scratch the surface of what's been said and written throughout history about this magical elixir brewed from an unassuming leaf, but I think it's a lovely start. Who knows how many other beautiful words and thoughts are out there, hiding from English speakers because they are in another language. My years of collected quotes on tea have been enlarged even further thanks to Google Books and lots of happy hours spent browsing old books. And as well, a thankful toast to my tea-drinking brother-from-another-mother, Rob Temple, for allowing me to use some of his Very British Problems to enhance my compilation. Cheers! —tεᖇᖇ¡·g, 2013





So I says "My dear if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head I should better understand your affairs." And we had the tea and the affairs too.... ~Charles Dickens, "Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy"





Make tea, not war. ~Monty Python





The most trying hours in life are between four o'clock and the evening meal. A cup of tea at this time adds a lot of comfort and happiness. ~Royal S. Copeland





If afternoon teas had started in the Oligocene Epoch, instead of the seventeenth century, we are convinced that evolution, far from discarding that useful appendage, the tail, would have perfected it. A little hand would have evolved at the end of it — such a one as might hold his saucer, while a gentleman sips from his teacup. ~Contributors' Club, The Atlantic Monthly, October 1917





Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty. ~James Norwood Pratt





The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured coziness. ~P.G. Wodehouse





This morning's tea makes yesterday distant. ~Author Unknown





Doing nothing is respectable at tea. ~Saying quoted in Sasaki Sanmi, Sadô Saijiki





Autumn stars shine through gaps in the wall.... [H]e... brews midnight tea by the stove's ruddy light. ~From a traditional Taoist song, quoted in John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld, The Chinese Art of Tea





I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water. ~George Orwell, "A Nice Cup of Tea," Evening Standard, 12 January 1946





...I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than 20 weak ones. All true tea-lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes.... ~George Orwell, "A Nice Cup of Tea," Evening Standard, 12 January 1946





Tea is a divine herb. ~Xu Guangqi





The sounds of the tea being made invite the peach blossoms to peep in through the window. ~Uson, quoted in Sasaki Sanmi, Sadô Saijiki





He'd never in his life been so hungry and tired. What wouldn't he give for a simple mug of tea and a humble fried egg sandwich? ~Jacqueline Kelly, Return to the Willows





Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary. ~Chinese Proverb





A cup of tea is a cup of peace. ~Soshitsu Sen XV, quoted by Kenneth S. Cohen





It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions. After eggs and bacon, it says, "Work!" After beefsteak and porter, it says, "Sleep!" After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup, and don't let it stand more than three minutes), it says to the brain, "Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!" ~Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), 1889





Having picked some tea, he drank it,

Then he sprouted wings,

And flew to a fairy mansion,

To escape the emptiness of the world....

~Chiao Jen





Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. ~Okakura Kakuzō





Water is the mother of tea, a teapot its father, and fire the teacher. ~Chinese Proverb





The first bowl washed the cobwebs from my mind —

The whole world seemed to sparkle.

A second cleansed my spirit

Like purifying showers of rain,

A third and I was one of the Immortals —

What need now for austerities

To purge our human sorrows?

Worldly people, by going in for wine,

Sadly deceive themselves.

For now I know the Way of Tea is real.

~Chio Jen





The first cup moistens my lips and throat. The second cup breaks my loneliness. The third cup searches my barren entrails but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration — all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified. The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals. The seventh cup — Ah! but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves. Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither. ~Lo T'ung





How I like tea? — Strong enough to paint a door with. ~Charles Searle, Look Here!, 1885





...Mr. Hanway endeavours to show, that the consumption of tea is injurious to the interest of our country.... he is to expect little justice from the author of this extract, a hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant, whose kettle has scarcely time to cool, who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning. ~Samuel Johnson, 1757





There is no need to have any special attitude while drinking except one of thankfulness. The nature of the tea itself is that of no-mind. ~Pojong Sunim





The froth of tea burns with brilliance. ~Author Unknown





Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T'ien Yi-heng





...The thick froth...

Lustrous like freshly fallen snow,

And resplendent like the spring's blossom.

~Du Yü, "Ode to Tea"





[T]ea... wealth of the Earth,

Blessed with the sweet spirit of Heaven.

~Du Yü, "Ode to Tea"





Where there's tea there's hope. ~Arthur Wing Pinero





Ha, ha, ha: love and scandal are the best sweetners of tea. ~Henry Fielding, "Love in Several Masques," 1727 (Lady Matchless)





"While I've no gold," he whispered,

"Love's riches shall be thine,

Though we, in a modest cottage,

On bread and water dine."

"With love's warm flame to serve us,

At slight expense," said she,

"We can make of bread and water

Sweet feasts of toast and tea."

~The Tattler in Town Topics, reprinted in The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1903 April 20th





Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea. ~Maela Moore, Celestial Seasonings mug, 1990s





Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. I can drink any quantity when I have not tasted wine; otherwise I am haunted by blue-devils by day, and dragons by night. ~Sydney Smith, quoted in A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith: Volume I by his daughter Lady Saba Holland with A Selection From His Letters edited by Mrs. Austin, 1855





If you have one teapot

And can brew your tea in it

That will do quite well.

How much does he lack himself

Who must have a lot of things?

~Sen no Rikyū





My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody. ~Wilkie Collins





Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. ~Thich Nat Hahn





In vino Veritas. In Aqua satietas. In... What is the Latin for Tea? What! Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone. ~Hilaire Belloc, "On Tea," 1908





If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited it will calm you. ~William Ewart Gladstone





You have a Milton; but it is pleasanter to eat one's own peas out of one's own garden, than to buy them by the peck at Covent Garden; and a book reads the better, which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots and dog's-ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins, or over a pipe, which I think is the maximum. ~Charles Lamb, letter to S.T. Coleridge, 11 October 1802





...A pure wind envelopes my body.

The whole world seen in a single cup.

~Kokan (Zen priest, 1278-1346), quoted in The Japanese Way of Tea by Sen Sōshitsu XV , translated by V. Dixon Morris





[T]he Truth lies in a bowl of tea. ~Nambo Sokei





If I, the boiling water,

And you, the tea;

Then your fragrance

Has to depend solely upon my plainness....

I have to be hot, even boiled

Before we consume each other....

~Dominic Cheung (Chang Ts'o), Drifting





Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on. ~Billy Connolly





You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C. S. Lewis, as quoted by Walter Hooper





[Tea] is a beverage which not only quenches thirst, but dissipates sorrow. ~Chang loo, c.828





Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. ~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, 1880





Though I cannot flee

From the world of corruption,

I can prepare tea

With water from a mountain stream

And put my heart to rest.

~Ueda Akinari





...a land of sheltered homes and warm firesides — firesides that were waiting — waiting, for the bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea. ~Agnes Repplier, To Think of Tea!





Find yourself a cup; the teapot is behind you. Now tell me about hundreds of things. ~Saki (H.H. Munro), "Tea"





The heartbreak of finding an empty teacup when you thought there was one gulp to go. ~Rob Temple, @SoVeryBritish (Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time, 2013)





One of the shining moments of my day is that when, having returned a little weary from an afternoon walk, I exchange boots for slippers, out-of-doors coat for easy, familiar, shabby jacket, and, in my deep, soft-elbowed chair, await the tea-tray.... [H]ow delicious is the soft yet penetrating odour which floats into my study, with the appearance of the teapot!... What a glow does it bring after a walk in chilly rain! ~George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903





Perhaps it is while drinking tea that I most of all enjoy the sense of leisure. ~George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903





In nothing is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival—almost one may call it so—of afternoon tea. Beneath simple roofs, the hour of tea has something in it of sacred; for it marks the end of domestic work and worry, the beginning of restful, sociable evening. The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose. ~George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903





If she speaks, it will only be a pleasant word or two; should she have anything important to say, the moment will be after tea, not before it; this she knows by instinct. ~George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903 (of the housekeeper bringing the tea-tray)





The return from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and not later than a quarter past four. ~C. S. Lewis





"Tea" to the English is really just a picnic indoors. ~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982





Teas vary as much in appearance as the different faces of men. ~Hui-tsung





She had that brand of pragmatism that would find her the first brewing tea after Armageddon. ~Clive Barker





The Muse's friend, Tea, does our fancy aid;

Repress those vapors which the head invade;

And keeps that palace of the soul serene....

~Edmund Waller, "Of Tea"





Indeed, madam, your ladyship is very sparing of your tea: I protest, the last I took was no more than water bewitch'd. ~Jonathan Swift





We had a kettle: we let it leak:

Our not repairing it made it worse.

We haven't had any tea for a week....

The bottom is out of the Universe!

~Rudyard Kipling, "Natural Theology"





Great love affairs start with champagne and end with tisane. ~Honoré de Balzac





I, my own damn self, am not a Tea Party supporter. I disagree with them on social liberties, our overseas wars, Obama's birthplace, Sarah Palin, and the conspicuous absence of tea at their rallies. ~Penn Jillette, God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales





I take pleasure in tea, appreciating it with my spirit and therefore cannot explain why. ~Sen Joo





In the country I always fear that creation will expire before tea-time. ~Sydney Smith





Come along inside... We'll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place. ~Attributed to Kenneth Grahame {Anyone have a verifiable source for this?}





Tea! Thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable Liquid, thou innocent Pretence for bringing the Wicked of both Sexes together in a Morning; thou Female Tongue-running, Smile-smoothing, Heart-opening, Wink-tippling Cordial, to whose glorious Insipidity I owe the happiest Moment of my Life, let me fall prostrate thus, and s—p, s—p, s—p, thus adore thee. ~Colley Cibber, The Lady's Last Stake, 1707





Tea should be taken in solitude... ~C. S. Lewis





Tea brings Time to a crawl, its frantic pace resuming on noticing our empty cups. ~Terri Guillemets, "Tea Time," 1994





There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea. ~Bernard-Paul Heroux





If you ask Zen people they will say tea is not something that you pour with unawareness and drink like any other drink. It is not a drink, it is meditation; it is prayer. So they listen to the kettle creating a melody, and in that listening they become more silent, more alert. ~Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh





Outside of a teapot life is but thousands of dusty affairs. ~Terri Guillemets





Its proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence. ~Samuel Johnson, "Review of 'A Journal of Eight Days Journey...' by Mr. Hanway," 1757





Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage. ~Catherine Douzel





A crisis pauses during tea. ~Terri Guillemets





Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence.... It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life. ~Okakura Kakuzō





The outsider may indeed wonder at this seeming much ado about nothing. What a tempest in a tea-cup! he will say. But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup. ~Okakura Kakuzō





In the worship of Bacchus, we have sacrificed too freely.... Why not consecrate ourselves to the queen of the Camelias, and revel in the warm stream of sympathy that flows from her altar? In the liquid amber within the ivory-porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius... ~Okakura Kakuzō





Tea with us became more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life.... Teaism was Taoism in disguise. ~Okakura Kakuzō





Coffee is not my cup of tea. ~Samuel Goldwyn





The perfect temperature for tea is two degrees hotter than just right. ~Terri Guillemets





Discovering you've missed your tea's perfect drinking temperature by a fraction of a second. ~Rob Temple, @SoVeryBritish (Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time, 2013)





They sipped and shared next to a teapot of whistling wishes and steaming dreams. ~Terri Guillemets





Ferryman, for tea, scoop up those reflections of cherry blossoms. ~Sakai Hōitsu





Today I'd like to sit and sip,

Forget about the world a bit,

Ignore the things I have to do,

And just enjoy a cup or two.

~Author Unknown





Tea: a moment of peace from the constant battles of life. ~Terri Guillemets





Pausing a moment, Mrs. Wilkins looked musingly at the steam of the tea‑kettle, as if through its silvery haze she saw her early home again. ~Louisa May Alcott, "A Cure for Despair," Work: A Story of Experience, 1873





Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,

Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,

And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn

Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,

That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,

So let us welcome peaceful ev'ning in.

~William Cowper, "The Winter Evening"





I put up a petition, annually, for as much snow, hail, frost, or storm of one kind or other, as the skies can possibly afford. Surely everybody is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a winter fireside—candles at four o'clock, warm hearth-rugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies on the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without. Most of these delicacies cannot be ripened without weather stormy or inclement. Start at the first week of November: thence to the end of January, you may compute the period when happiness is in season,—which, in my judgment, enters the room with the tea-tray. For tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities, or are become so from wine-drinking, and are not susceptible of influence from so refined a stimulant, will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual; and, for my part, I would have joined Dr. Samuel Johnson against any impious person who should have presumed to disparage it. ~Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, slightly altered





Tea — a way to the moment. ~Terri Guillemets, 2019, blackout poetry created from Holly Chamberlin, Summer Memories, 2014, page 4





To part her time 'twixt reading and bohea,

To muse, and spill her solitary tea,

Or o'er cold coffee trifle with the spoon,

Count the slow Clock, and dine exact at noon...

~Alexander Pope (1688–1744), "Epistle to Miss Blount, On Her Leaving the Town after the Coronation" [Bohea is a type of tea. The coronation is that of King George the first, 1715. —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]





Anne.... was so pale and tragic at breakfast next morning that Marilla was alarmed and insisted on making her a cup of scorching ginger tea. Anne sipped it patiently, although she could not imagine what good ginger tea would do. Had it been some magic brew, potent to confer age and experience, Anne would have swallowed a quart of it without flinching. ~Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables





Tea is a cup of life. ~Author unknown





With tea, one is always in company, even when taken alone. ~Terri Guillemets





...creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like a forest floor newly swept by rain. ~Luwuh, Chaking, regarding selection of the best quality tea leaves





Even the sleeping kettle has stories to tell. ~Terri Guillemets, "What the house things hear," 1996





Dear Madam your Tea is exceedingly Fine,

I had rather drink Tea, than the finest of Wine.

~Jane Russell Johnson (1706–1759), from Jane Johnson's Manuscript Nursery Library, Set 17, Item 8 [Johnson, J. mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana]





Tea elevates our minds so that we can see our problems from a distance — through the fine mists of contemplation. ~Terri Guillemets





Accepting a cup of tea when you're in a hurry, resulting in hundreds of tiny, excruciatingly painful, rapid-fire sips. ~Rob Temple, @SoVeryBritish (Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time, 2013)





Harry found the hot drink... seemed to burn away a little of the fear fluttering in his chest. ~J.K. Rowling





[L]et me beseech you to resolve to free yourselves from the slavery of the tea and coffee and other slop-kettle, if, unhappily, you have been bred up in such slavery.... I pretend not to be a "doctor"; but, I assert, that to pour regularly, every day, a pint or two of warm liquid matter down the throat, whether under the name of tea, coffee, soup, grog, or whatever else, is greatly injurious to health. ~William Cobbett (1762–1835), Advice to Young Men, and (Incidentally) to Young Women, in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Citizen or a Subject, 1829





The first sip of tea is always the best... you cringe as it burns the back of your throat, knowing you just had the hottest carpe-diem portion. ~Terri Guillemets





I declare,... a man who wishes to make his way in life could do nothing better than go through the world with a boiling tea-kettle in his hand. ~Sydney Smith, quoted in A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith: Volume I by his daughter Lady Saba Holland with A Selection From His Letters edited by Mrs. Austin, 1855





Sipping a cup of hot tea is like a mental bubble bath. ~Terri Guillemets





Tea purifies spirit, removes anxiety and nervousness, brings ease and comfort, and is conducive to meditation. ~Author Unknown





Tea is also a sort of spiritual refreshment, an elixir of clarity and wakeful tranquility. Respectfully preparing tea and partaking of it mindfully create heart-to-heart conviviality, a way to go beyond this world and enter a realm apart. No pleasure is simpler, no luxury cheaper, no consciousness-altering agent more benign. ~James Norwood Pratt





Every time I drink hot tea I suddenly feel very sophisticated and I subconsciously begin to gravitate toward a British accent. ~Keith Wynn, @Darxist_Marxist





Now for tea there's Perrywinkles

And some Butterwort and Sedge,

House-leeks and Bird's-nest-binkles,

With some Sundew from the hedge,

There is Sorrel, Balsam, Mallow,

Some Milk Wort and Mare's Tail too,

With some Borage and some Sallow,

Figworts and Violets blue.

~S.J. Adair Fitz-Gerald (1859–1925), The Zankiwank & The Bletherwitch, 1896





Our camp-kettle, filled from the brook, hummed doubtfully for a while, then busily bubbled under the sidelong glare of the flames—cups clinked and rattled—the fragrant steam ascended; and soon this little circlet in the wilderness grew warm and genial as my lady's drawing-room. ~Alexander William Kinglake





England a fortune-telling host,

As num'rous as the stars, could boast;

Matrons, who toss the cup, and see

The grounds of Fate in grounds of tea....

~Charles Churchill (1731-1764), The Ghost





Paint me a room. Make it populous with books; and, furthermore, paint me a good fire. And near the fire paint me a tea-table; and place only two cups and saucers on the tea-tray; and, if you know how to paint such a thing, symbolically or otherwise, paint me an eternal teapot—eternal a parte ante, and a parte post; for I usually drink tea from eight o'clock at night to four in the morning. And, as it is very unpleasant to make tea, or to pour it out for one's-self, paint me a lovely young woman sitting at the table. ~Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, slightly altered





Pour a rainbow from a teapot—

drink of happiness and love

warmth, calmness, and peace

breathe in the curling steam of dreams.

~Terri Guillemets





Never concentrating so hard than when manoeuvring a full cup of tea whilst lying down. ~Rob Temple, @SoVeryBritish (Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time, 2013)





let go of the past

— the rotting past

forget, and make tea

— just stop thinking

~Terri Guillemets, "Forget & make tea," 2019, blackout poetry created from Holly Chamberlin, Summer Memories, 2014, page 4





A true warrior, like tea, shows his strength in hot water. ~Chinese Proverb





Remember the tea kettle, although it is up to its neck in hot water it keeps on singing. ~Author unknown, first printed in 1914 anonymously as "Optimism is a cheerful frame of mind which enables a tea kettle to whistle and sing although it is up to its neck in hot water all the time," above differently worded version later made popular in the early 1930s by Szczepau Anton "Tony" Wons (1891-1965)





Tea time — a brief recess from dodging life's blowdarts. ~Terri Guillemets





A man may take his toast and tea,

His comfy cup and chat,

And, if his blood runs red, still be

A man for all of that.

There's old Jim B., on marmalade

And tea and toast he's able

To call a spade a blooming spade

And hammer on the table.

Red-blooded men will fight their way

No matter what their tipple;

The infant, Hercules, they say,

Slew snakes still at the nipple.

No kick red liquor has to lend

Compares with orange pekoe:

So, let the old soaks snicker, friend,

And tank up at the tea co.

~Chicago Daily News, reprinted in The Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, August 1926





Tea patches heartbreak, sip by sip. ~Terri Guillemets





...Stands the Church clock at ten to three?

And is there honey still for tea?

~Rupert Brooke, "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester," 1912

(Thanks, Helen)





Tea is a magical calming elixir — like, as if coffee had a therapist. ~Terri Guillemets





The man breathed in deeply — of rosebuds and mint, of sunny meadows and salty cliffs, of streams in no hurry and the sound of bagpipes. Here were the wildings of spring and summer and fall, mingling with each other, no longer flowers but tea. ~Ethel Pochocki (1925–2010), Wildflower Tea, 1993





My life flows through the veins of a tea leaf. ~Terri Guillemets, "Celestial grounding," 2003





The full Moon throws startling patches of silver across the dimly lighted kitchen walls as I sip my peppermint tea. ~David J. Beard (1947–2016), tweet, 2009 March 12th





O' peppermint tea —

two delights per sip

as steamy hot as passion

cool as a wintry lake dip

~Terri Guillemets, "Getting Boulder," 2003





The overwhelming sorrow of finding a cup of tea you forgot about. ~Rob Temple, @SoVeryBritish (Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time, 2013)





So of all the particulars of health and exercise, and fit nutriment, and tonics. Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims, "Inspiration"





When the news reporter said "Shopkeepers are opening their doors bringing out blankets and cups of tea " I just smiled. It's like yes. That's Britain for you. Tea solves everything. You're a bit cold? Tea. Your boyfriend has just left you? Tea. You've just been told you've got cancer? Tea. Coordinated terrorist attack on the transport network bringing the city to a grinding halt? Tea dammit! And if it's really serious, they may bring out the coffee. The Americans have their alert raised to red, we break out the coffee. That's for situations more serious than this of course. Like another England penalty shoot-out. ~Jslayeruk, as posted on Metaquotes Livejournal, in response to the July 2005 London subway bombings





...Tea, although an Oriental,

Is a gentleman at least;

Cocoa is a cad and coward,

Cocoa is a vulgar beast...

~G.K. Chesterton, The Flying Inn, 1914





The best rainy evening dilemma: chamomile or earl grey. ~Terri Guillemets





Our trouble is that we drink too much tea. I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats. ~J.B. Priestley





Iced tea is too pure and natural a creation not to have been invented as soon as tea, ice, and hot weather crossed paths. ~John Egerton





American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It's never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957. ~Tom Holt





Once tea has passed from hot to lukewarm, it's just limp water. ~Terri Guillemets, "Interruptions," 2005





If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. ~Japanese proverb





Tea is instant wisdom — just add water! ~Terri Guillemets





Picture you, upon my knee,

Just tea for two, and two for tea.

~Irving Caesar





Deciding to spice up the morning by filling the kettle slightly past the recommended level, then thinking better of it. ~Rob Temple, @SoVeryBritish (Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time, 2013)





Tea is the symbol of and antidote to civilization. ~Terri Guillemets





When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad; and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one's ramble was over, and slippered feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries. ~Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows





Come, Ladies, stuff in

Tea, toast, and muffin...

~Peter Pindar, "A Trip from Mortlake to Epsom Races and Back Again" [Pseudonym of John Wolcot (1738–1819). —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]





Whilst drinking tea, our hearts steam love. ~Terri Guillemets





As the centerpiece of a cherished ritual, it's a talisman against the chill of winter, a respite from the ho-hum routine of the day. ~Sarah Engler, "Tea Up," Real Simple magazine, February 2006





Teardrops of steam-dew

glide down the kettle

Don't cry —

we'll make each other feel better.

~Terri Guillemets





Top off the tea... it lubricates the grey matter. ~Good Neighbors , quoted from stashtea.com





It was a scandal —

drunk on chamomile tea,

the fairy went wicked.

~Terri Guillemets, "Chamomile," 2018, blackout poetry created from Danielle Steel, Fairy Tale, 2017, pages 208–209





A gentleman remarkable for his fund of humor, wrote to a female relative the following couplet:—

How comes it, this delightful weather,

That U and I can't dine together?

To which she returned the following reply:—

My worthy friend, it cannot be;

U cannot come till after T.

~"Short-Hand Question and Answer," The Kaleidoscope; or, Literary and Scientific Mirror, 1823 February 17th





My kettle coughs a steamy tea. ~Terri Guillemets





Being required by law to say the word "lovely" immediately after taking the first sip of a new tea. ~Rob Temple, @SoVeryBritish (Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time, 2013)





Tea is liquid wisdom. ~Terri Guillemets



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Last saved 2020 Sep 27 Sun 13:06 PDT





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