Friday, March 22, 2024

there is no problem on Earth that can't be ameliorated by a hot bath and a cup of tea

“Okay, this is the wisdom. First, time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted. Second, almost anything can be improved with the addition of bacon. And finally, there is no problem on Earth that can't be ameliorated by a hot bath and a cup of tea.”
Jasper Fforde, Shades of Grey
 
D.T. Suzuki
“Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?”
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture
 
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
C.S. Lewis

Fyodor Dostoevsky
“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

“I don't want tea," said Clary, with muffled force. "I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them."
"Unfortunately," said Hodge, "we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing.”
Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

Dodie Smith
“I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.”
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

Lewis Carroll
“Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."
"Nobody asked your opinion," said Alice.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Wilkie Collins
“My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.”
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White

“In Ireland, you go to someone's house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you're really just fine. She asks if you're sure. You say of course you're sure, really, you don't need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don't need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn't mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it's no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting.

In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don't get any damned tea.

I liked the Irish way better.”
C.E. Murphy, Urban Shaman

“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.”
Bill Watterson, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book

“A cup of tea would restore my normality."

[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Screenplay]”
Douglas Adams

“Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.”
Ann Patchett, Truth & Beauty

“When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?”
Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Douglas Adams
“Arthur blinked at the screens and felt he was missing something important. Suddenly he realized what it was.

"Is there any tea on this spaceship?" he asked.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Henry James
“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

“Dad was at his desk when I opened the door, doing what all British people do when they're freaked out: drinking tea.”
Rachel Hawkins, Demonglass

“The bodies in my floor all trusted someone. Now I walk on them to tea.”
Victoria Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

William Ewart Gladstone
“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

“As far as her mom was concerned, tea fixed everything. Have a cold? Have some tea. Broken bones? There's a tea for that too. Somewhere in her mother's pantry, Laurel suspected, was a box of tea that said, 'In case of Armageddon, steep three to five minutes'.”
Aprilynne Pike, Illusions

Lin Yutang
“There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.”
Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living


Gary Snyder
“There are those who love to get dirty and fix things. They drink coffee at dawn, beer after work. And those who stay clean, just appreciate things. At breakfast they have milk and juice at night. There are those who do both, they drink tea.”
Gary Snyder

“What kind of tea do you want?"
"There´s more than one kind of tea?...What do you have?"
"Let´s see... Blueberry, Raspberry, Ginseng, Sleepytime, Green Tea, Green Tea with Lemon, Green Tea with Lemon and Honey, Liver Disaster, Ginger with Honey, Ginger Without Honey, Vanilla Almond, White Truffle Coconut, Chamomile, Blueberry Chamomile, Decaf Vanilla Walnut, Constant Comment and Earl Grey."
-"I.. Uh...What are you having?... Did you make some of those up?”
Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

Sydney  Smith
“Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.”
Sydney Smith, A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith

Thomas de Quincey
“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.”
Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater

Jane Austen
“But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea.”
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“Tea is the magic key to the vault where my brain is kept.”
Frances Hardinge

“Tea ... is a religion of the art of life.”
Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

“In Britain, a cup of tea is the answer to every problem.
Fallen off your bicycle? Nice cup of tea.
Your house has been destroyed by a meteorite? Nice cup of tea and a biscuit.
Your entire family has been eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex that has travelled through a space/time portal? Nice cup of tea and a piece of cake. Possibly a savoury option would be welcome here too, for example a Scotch egg or a sausage roll.”
David Walliams, Mr Stink

Mary Elizabeth Braddon
“Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea.”
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret

Ralph Waldo Emerson
“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

“If leeches ate peaches instead of my blood, then I would be free to drink tea in the mud!”
Emilie Autumn, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

Kakuzō Okakura
“Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. 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.”
Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea

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