Quoteations

I've intended to start this thread for awhile, but always seem to be away from the computer when I run across a good quotation about tea. How 'bout we gather together quotations related to tea?

After a cup of tea...{the stomach} 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!' - from Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.

Perhaps a bit much to ask of a cup of tea, but I like the enthusiasm.

Os.

The famous ones:

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.
- C. S. Lewis

What would the world do without tea?-- how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea
- Sir Sidney Smith (1771-1845)

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.
- Henry Fielding

Ah, you beat me to C.S. Lewis (my favorite).

Another nice one:
“There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea”
Bernard-Paul Heroux

A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards. ~A.A. Milne

and

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

Oh Belloc, you silly man.

just to get the authors on the touchstone list:

Hilaire Belloc
A.A. Milne

Well, Belloc doesn't seem to work

"Don't hurry. When making tea you have only time. Let tea be a refuge, a genuine change of pace. Brewing your tea is part of drinking it and drinking is part of your life. Let the tea gently stimulate you to reflect on how the smallest part touches and is touched by the infinite."

- Joel, David, and Karl Shapira; The Book of Coffee and Tea

"In my minds eye I saw my grandmother, Boadicea-like, repel the hordes with her battle cry: "When I makes tay, I makes tay!"

- Malachi McCormick: A Decent Cup of Tea

And don't forget about Poetea to accompany Quoteations.

Os.

Oh! I am SO slow: Quo-TEA-tions! I thought it was a typo!

Close by those Meads for ever crown'd with Flow'rs,
Where Thames with Pride surveys his rising Tow'rs,
There stands a Structure of Majestic Fame,
Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its Name.
Her Britain's Statesmen oft the Fall foredoom
Of foreign Tyrants, and of Nymphs at home;
Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey,
Dost sometimes Counsel take-and sometimes Tea.

- Alexander Pope, "The Rape of the Lock"

"A woman is like a teabag; you never know how strong she is until she ends up in hot water."

-Eleanor Roosevelt (I think)

What about this current one

"Here (in Pakistan and Affghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you becmoe a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything-even die." -Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan

-"Three Cups of Tea" Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.
- Honoré de Balzac

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week.
The bottom is out of the universe.
- Rudyard Kipling

>12 kape747:
I guess, depending on what you think of your guest, you should be sure to count the servings of tea! :-)

Os.

>13 chapeauchin:

Oh no! I can no longer drink wine and my spouse will only drink tisanes when I offer tea (no caffiene). Looks like the romance is over! (of course, having two kids didn't help romance much either)

Os.

Not a QuoTeation, but a great short-short story about tea (sort of). And, if it happens to get you hooked on Saki, all the better.

Tea from The Toys of Peace by Saki (H. H. Munro)

Os.

I've been hooked on Saki since my teens - my dad gave me a book of the complete short stories. :-)

"Bread and water can so easily become toast and tea." I have not seen a definitive source for that quote but I have always liked it.

Every tea book contains quotations about or around tea, rare are tea quotations only books. A recently(April 2009) published one:
Tea Wisdom by Aaron Fisher*
contains nearly 300 bits, from 171 different sources. The most cited authors are Kakuzo Okakura (17), Rikyu (12) and A.D. Fisher (9).
I have another one, a small Exley book, with 70 quotes from 53 sources. Kakuzo is also the greatest contributor (4).
The two books have only 12 quotes in common.

*sorry, the touchstone doesn't work.
http://www.librarything.com/work/8533020/book/47132669

Cool - thanks, krishh! Looks lovely!

*dashes off to add to Amazon wishlist*

"Toad sat up on end once more, dried his eyes, sipped his tea and munched his toast, and soon began talking freely about himself..."

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

A visitor to 18th century Boston (USA) observed "the ladies here visit, drink tea, and indulge in every little piece of gentility to the height of the mode and neglect the affairs of their families with as good grace as the finest ladies in London."

Os.

Love it!

Thanks, Os.

...and for the country music lovers.... (found, along with several other fun ones, at teas2dine4.com/teapoems.html)

DRINKIN' FROM MY SAUCER

I've never made a fortune
And it's prob'ly too late now;
But I don't worry 'bout that much,
I'm happy anyhow!

And as I go along life's way
Reapin' better than I sowed.
I'm drinkin' from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed!

Haven't got a lot of riches,
And sometimes the going's tough;
But I've got loving ones around me,
And that makes me rich enough!

I thank God for His blessings
And the mercies He's bestowed.
I'm drinkin' from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed!

I 'member times when things went wrong,
My faith wore somewhat thin;
But all at once the dark clouds broke
And light peeped through again.

So, Lord, help me not to gripe
About tough rows I've hoed.
I'm drinkin' from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed!

If God gives me strength and courage
When the way grows steep and rough,
I'll not ask for other blessings;
I'm already blessed enough!

May I never be too busy
To help others bear their loads.
I'll keep drinkin' from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed!

Author: © Jimmy Dean

"She rearranged the fire a little, mostly for the pleasure of handling the fluted steel poker, and then sat down by it. Tea was already laid: there were honey sandwiches, brandy-snaps, and small ratafia biscuits; and there would, she knew, be crumpets. Three new library books lay virginally on the fender-stool, their bright paper wrappers unsullied by subscriber's hand." - from Mrs. Miniver

thanks to krishh who posted these on another tea thread,

"We had just returned to the hotel from the Brady's Booksmith party for Juliet. We were both tired...His swarm alone should have alerted me, but it didn't - I wanted to sit down, gloat over Juliet's success, and have a cream tea." - from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

For when the Fair in all their pride expire,
To their first elements their souls retire.
The sprites of feiry termagants in flame
Mount up, and take a Salamander's name.
Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And sip, with Nymphs, their elemental tea.
- Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock

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. ~Gladstone, 1865

Message 11 - loved your quote.

‘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

(this and others at blog.ivykeep.com/.../2009/01/quotesbooks.jpg)

Christopher Robin was home by this time, because it was the afternoon, and he was so glad to see them that they stayed there until very nearly tea-time, and then they had a Very Nearly tea, which is one you forget about afterwards, and hurried on to Pooh Corner, so as to see Eeyore before it was too late to have a Proper Tea with Owl.
-- A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

"Couldn't make us a cup o'tea, could ye? Its not been an easy journey!"

Hagrid from Harry Potter and the Sorcerors/Philosophers Stone.

I found these quotes on a tea set, owned by the Italian grandmother I stayed with as a home-stay for Fall classes in Europe a few years ago. I wrote them down in a notebook, and this thread made me remember them again. Thanks for the memories.

"There is a subtle charm in the taste of tea which makes it irresistible and capable of idealism. Western humorists were not slow to mingle the fragrance of their thoughts with its aroma. It has not the arrogance of wine, the self-consciousness of coffee, nor the simpering innocence of cocoa."
-Kakuzo Okakura

"The first bowl soothes the throat, while the second banishes loneliness. At the third bowl, I search my soul and find 5,000 volumes of ancient poems. With the fourth bowl, a slight perspiration washes away all unhappy things. At the fifth bowl, my bones and muscles are cleansed. With the sixth bowl, I am in communication with the immortal spirit. The seventh bowl? It is forbidden; already a cool, ethereal breeze begins to cool my whole body."
-An early Chinese poet describing his love for tea.

Enjoy!

From Tumbling Blocks, a Benni Harper cozy:

"Not a bad way to go," Bobbie said. "Sleeping in your own bed after tea and cookies. We should all be so lucky."

As she shared a cup of tea with Tara, her friend of the samovar in the market, she said happily, « I might as well make a buck while I can. »

Tara reluctantly agreed. Her problem, as the war progressed, was that tea and sugar were becoming hard to buy. The phrase « under the counter » (p.293) became common currency, as retailers held back goods in short supply for favoured customers.

A cuppa tea and an aspirin, Helen Forrester 2003

Because of the war, Ceylon had become more than a distant tea-producing outpost of the British Empire. Its strategic location in the Indian Ocean and its large natural harbors made it vital to the British military offensive, and suddenly Colombo was awash with military personnel.
...

There were no rumors or stocking-up here. Whith landslides, storms and power failures being the order of the day, Glencairn's storerooms had enough food to last through the war and probably to feed the British army as well. The back garden continued to yield its bounty of fresh vegetables, and tea, of course, was plentiful.

The Flower Boy, Karen Roberts 1999

Drink tea and nourish life; with the first sip, joy; with the
second sip, satisfaction; with the third sip, peace; with the fourth, a
Danish. - Sayings of the Jewish Buddhist

'Well, well,' observed Mr. Norris, taking his cup, 'we live in stirring times; tea-stirring times.' - from Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood

Os.

The UK Tea Council has rounded up some famous quotations:
http://www.tea.co.uk/news-article/Compendium-of-Tea-Quotations

#37 - I just got that newsletter yesterday and was so excited when I saw that article!

Personally, I love tea - but I couldn't resist giving this quote from William Cobbett's Rural Rides:

"I view the tea drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame, and engenderer of effeminacy and laziness, a debaucher of youth, and a maker of misery for old age."

I've never read the book, so I can't say what got his back up about it.

If I was really trying to lead you into the paths of righteousness I would tell you to use free leaves rather than bags. - Douglas Adams

ps Love quote #39! :P

"Women are like tea bags, they don't know how strong they are until they get into hot water." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

-41- I have that quote posted in my cubicle at the university :)

>41 Osbaldistone:, 42
A friend of mine uses it for her sig line in e-mail.

There's a vivid tea-drinker moment in "Avatar: the Last Airbender", the anime series (thanks to FantasyGirl2 for the quote).

Iroh: "Bleh! This is nothing but hot leaf juice! We'll have to make some maor changes around here!"
Zuko: "Uncle, that's what all tea is!"
Iroh (glaring at his nephew): "How could anyone of my own family make such a horrible comment!"

Os.

Os, We're Avatar fans at our house and that's how my teenager affectionately refers to whatever I'm drinking!

I recently read/reviewed Windflower which is a book set in Labrador (Northern) Canada. I loved this quote about tea. An Inuit
great-grandfather discussing trade/tea with the Hudson's Bay company with his granddaughter:

'He mused for a moment, a smile spreading slowly across his features.

"But I wonder whether the greatest blessing wasn't tea. This may not have been quite a necessity. You might even call it an extravagance. But how restorative it was on our journeys out in the great cold! I can still remember my first mouthful of hot, very sweet tea my mother tried to make me swallow when I was still a very young child. I didn't want to; I thought it was one of those nasty herbal potions used for fevers. My mother mother laughed and said 'Baby you'll see when you taste it'. And in fact as soon as I tasted it I demanded more. For the first time in our lives a real warmth reached the depth of our bodies and souls, where we had never been completely warmed before. I remember: We sat there in a circle around the igloo, passing the cup back and forth to one another, drinking and laughing in a sort of drunkenness."

Nice!!! I heartily approve of that quote. It's definitely an apt description for how I feel when I drink tea. Good job, Bcteagirl!

>46 Bcteagirl:
this is the kind of stuff I was hoping for when i started this thread. Thanks

Os.

A shorter but interesting quote about tea I came across in No Great Mischief which is set in Cape Breton (Northern Nova Scotia, Canada).

His brothers lived alone in their great-grandparents house:

"In the morning the heads of the nails in the half-finished bedrooms would be white with frost, and the frost on the windows in the bedroom would have to be scraped away with fingernails or melted by the warmth of breath before the outside world could be seen in its icy stillness. The water supply, which stood in two buckets on the table .. would be converted to black ice by the morning, and my brothers would smash the surface with hammers to get enough water for their tea....They seemed to have a great difficulty in keeping intact cups within their house, or perhaps there were really never there to begin with. In any case hey drank their tea from cups which had no handles or from jam jars or from the tops of thermos bottles".

I recently came across this quote from the lovely Elizabeth at her blog: Delightfully Tacky.

http://www.delightfully-tacky.com/2011/02/changing-gears.html

"I feel like I'm just steeping in joy like the best, most delicious hot tea."

How perfect a feeling is that?!

February 6th comic strip, Hagar the Horrible:

Hagar addresses his troops as they prepare to storm a castle:
"Be ready, men...the enemy will undoubtedly pour boiling water down on us! So have your cups and tea bags ready!"

>51 Kek55:
Love it!

>51 Kek55:
Now that's my kind of war!

Os.

"Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea." - Henry Fielding, Love in Several Masques

"If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty." - Japanese Proverb

Clever people, the Japanese.

51: Ok that is clearly awesome :)

When the Drink button was pressed {the Nutri-Matic machine} made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject's taste-buds, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject's metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centers of the subject's brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one knew quite why it did this because it invariably delivered a cupful of liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

- Douglas Adams, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Os.

Ah, when I saw this thread I scanned through to see when a Hitch-Hikers quote would turn up. And there it is.
Not a quote, but some of you might appreciate http://dtw42.deviantart.com/gallery/25525974#/d3do4g2

>57 dtw42:
Thanks for that. Before the days of 'track changes' in MSWord, I wrote 'stet' in the margins of many report drafts. Fortunately, no one ever replaced the marked out words with 'Society for Traditional English Teas". And the author's name is very creative.

I must send this link to my editors friends.

Os.

Unless you've read The Limehouse Text by Will Thomas, this won't be as funny as I thought it was; a private enquiry agent and sidekick have just survived a grueling case (fights to the death, opium dens, triad gangs, etc.) centering around the Chinese subculture in London circa 1880. (See, I've probably spoiled it by all my exposition.)

Barker: I think we've done enough for one day. Let us go home and have some tea.

Llewelyn: "I think I'll have Darjeeling, sir ... I'm rather off Chinese at the moment."

The Russells meeting the great logician, Gotlog Frege (from Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis):

Bertrand - "And this is Mrs Alys Russell, my wife"

Alys - "Delighted Herr Professor"

Herr Frege - "Hm, you go inside. Help the other wife make the tea!"

Herr Frege (to Bertrand, as Alys leaves in a huff) - "Women are such illogical creatures."



Os.

"Tea and books -- mmmmmm, two of life's exquisite pleasures that together bring near-bliss."
-- Christine Hanrahan

As his end was not far off, Risuke tearfully addressed his attendants, saying, "This is the last request of my life. Pray bring me a cup of tea."

- from "The Ten Virtues of Tea That All Disappeared at Once", by Saikaku (late 17th c.)

Oh, there once was a Puffin
Just the shape of a muffin,
And he lived on an island
In the bright blue sea!

He ate little fishes,
That were most delicious,
And he had them for supper
And he had them for tea.

- opening lines from "There Once Was a Puffin" by Florence Page Jaques

Eee! Love it! :)

From the story "Amos Barton," one of George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life:

Reader! did you ever taste such a cup of tea as Miss Gibbs is this moment handing to Mr Pilgrim ? Do you know the dulcet strength, the animating blandness of tea sufficiently blended with real farmhouse cream ? No - most likely you are a miserable town-bred reader, who think of cream as a thinnish white fluid, delivered in infinitesimal pennyworths down area steps; or perhaps, from a presentiment of calves' brains, you refrain from any lacteal addition, and rasp your tongue with unmitigated bohea. You have a vague idea of a milch cow as probably a white-plaster animal standing in a butterman's window, and you know nothing of the sweet history of genuine cream, such as Miss Gibbs's: how it was this morning in the udders of the large sleek beasts, as they stood lowing a patient entreaty under the milking-shed; how it fell with a pleasant rhythm into Betty's pail, sending a delicious incense into the cool air; how it was carried into that temple of moist cleanliness, the dairy, where it quietly separated itself from the meaner elements of milk, and lay in mellowed whiteness, ready for the skimming-dish which transferred it to Miss Gibbs's glass cream-jug. If I am right in my conjecture, you are unacquainted with the highest possibilities of tea; and Mr Pilgrim, who is holding that cup in his hands, has an idea beyond you.

>65 ncgraham: "If I am right in my conjecture, you are unacquainted with the highest possibilities of tea; and Mr Pilgrim, who is holding that cup in his hands, has an idea beyond you."

Eliot sure knows how to make a "town-bred reader" lust for something s/he didn't even know existed before reading this passage.

Os.

I actually saw this passage performed live a few weeks ago—made my heart skip a beat!

oooo Thanks for sharing! :)

#46 - Love that one! :)

(provided by AsYouKnow_Bob on this thread)

"There is an early train to town, Watson, but I think we shall just have time for a cup of tea at the Chequers before we catch it."

again:

"The table was all laid, and just as I was about to ring Mrs. Hudson entered with the tea and coffee. A few minutes later she brought in three covers, and we all drew up to the table, Holmes ravenous, I curious, and Phelps in the gloomiest state of depression."

and:

"I'll tell you what I did first, and how I came to do it afterwards," said he. "After leaving you at the station I went for a charming walk through some admirable Surrey scenery to a pretty little village called Ripley, where I had my tea at an inn and took the precaution of filling my flask and of putting a paper of sandwiches in my pocket."

Enjoy the following play on words............can't remember where I read them, but I copied them in my quoteations to share with tea loving friends.

* tranquili - tea....a state of peace while drinking tea.

* prosperi - tea.....condition of having good fortune while drinking tea.

* simplici - tea......the appreciation of life's little moments while drinking tea.

* sereni - tea.......the absence of stress while drinking tea.

* creativi - tea.......having the ability to create while drinking tea.

A couple of years ago, I received two mugs for Christmas. Each has a word on the outside and a definition around the lip on the inside. They are:

tranquili - tea: n. a state of peace and quiet while drinking tea
and
creativi - tea: n. having more creative ability while drinking tea

Much like your list. I wonder if there were mugs available for each of these, which then makes me wonder if I should read anything into the two that were chosen for me. :-)

Os.

I would have definitely purchased a mug with one of the sayings.....regardless of which one....I love the play-on-words.

I wouldn't read too much into the mugs you were given. Perhaps they were the only ones available??....who knows. :)

I always thought the sayings would look nice on a cross stitching pattern that had tea cups. What do you think?

CS

>73 CSailin: I always thought the sayings would look nice on a cross stitching pattern that had tea cups. What do you think?

Of course! Or even a tea cup with the saying on the cup? My mother did a little cross-stitch but really got creative with needlepoint; my grandmother did some of each, and hand-hooked small rugs as well. I have a treasured piece from each of them - not just something they owned but something they created.

Os.

"Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company." - Author Unknown

"...and when by the combined and simultaneous industry of almost the entire ship's company, the whole of this conscientious duty is at last concluded, then the crew themselves proceed to their own ablutions; shift themselves from top to toe; and finally issue to the immaculate deck, fresh and all aglow, as bridegrooms new-leaped from out the daintiest Holland.

"Now, with elated step, they pace the planks in twos and threes, and humorously discourse of parlors, sofas, carpets, and fine cambrics; propose to mat the deck; think of having hanging to the top; object not to taking tea by moonlight on the piazza of the forecastle. To hint to such musked mariners of oil, and bone, and blubber, were little short of audacity. They know not the thing you distantly allude to. Away, and bring us napkins!"
- Herman Melville, Moby Dick

...one day in winter, as I came home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called 'petites madeleines,' which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim's shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory—this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I was conscious that it was connected with the taste of tea and cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could not, indeed, be of the same nature as theirs. Whence did it come? What did it signify? How could I seize upon and define it?

- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way, vol 1 of In Search of Lost Time

"Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one."
(Ancient Chinese proverb)

"...oh! yet
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?"
(Rupert Brooke)

>74 Osbaldistone:

Perhaps, to avoid confusing novitiates in the art of tea drinking, I should make it clear that the tea referred to here by Brooke is tea - the meal/snack rather than tea - the drink. I think that the sweetening of tea (the drink) in the early 20th Century was typically achieved using white sugar. Honey might have been expected 'at tea' as something with which to spread onto buttered bread, often using a 'dipper'. Use IN tea (the drink) is, I believe, relatively recent.

I know you're not supposed to cry over spilled tea, but it's just so sad!
~Uncle Iroh

Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervouse sensibilities...will always be the favored beverage of the intellectual.
--Thomas DeQuincy

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.
--Gladstone

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
--Henry James

He has become a man of tea. He never would have believed it. This unasked-for life, it always surprises. It began in the North [Ireland]. He couldn't get away from it. Tea for breakfast, tea for lunch, tea in the afternoon, tea before bedtime, tea between the tea. He has learned the art of it. Choosing the right kettle, Running the tap water until cold. Boiling it beyond the boil. Heating the teapot with a swish. Doling out the leaves. Timing the brew. Wetting the tea, the Irish call it. He is not a man for alcohol, and it is the tea that has dragged him through many a late evening. With cookies. Or biscuits as they say...McVitie's Digestives.
-- from TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

Os.

Tea Time – A Poem For a Child By W. C. Bennet

Sing, kettle, sing,
Etty can hear;
Your kind song bring
Nice tea-time near;
Nice toast and tea,
Kettle, I know,
Not far can be
When you sing so.
Sing father here,
Now the room’s bright—
Bright, snug, and dear,
With warm firelight.
Sing, bring him home;
We always know
He soon will come
When you sing so.
Here’s his soft chair,
Soon you will see
Us sitting there,
I on his knee;
You, kettle, too,
Your love must show;
What can you do?
Sing on just so.

Let the world boil down to just this cup, this moment, and let the warmth slowly spread
from your fingers throughout your whole body to your soul.
~ Alexandra Stoddard, Tea Celebrations

>86 Kek55:
Ooh, nice.

The Muse's friend, tea does our fancy aid,
Regress those vapors which the head invade,
And keep the palace of the soul serene.

Edmund Waller, " Of Tea," 1663

Quoted in Our Country Diary for 2013.

From the last three QuoTeations, almost a poem itself:

You, kettle, too, your love must show

Let the warmth slowly spread from your fingers throughout
Your whole body to your soul.

Keep the palace of the soul serene.

Yessss

Os.

A rare funny moment in Virginia Woolf's The Waves that I just want to post somewhere.

You have been reading Byron. You have been marking the passages that seem to approve of your own character. I find marks against all those sentences which seem to express a sardonic yet passionate nature; a moth-like impetuosity dashing itself against hard glass. You thought, as you drew your pencil there, "I too throw off my cloak like that. I too snap my fingers in the face of destiny." Yet Byron never made tea as you do, who fill the pot so that when you put the lid on the tea spills over.

I was deciding whether to read a book the other day. I really liked the cover, and the blurb on the back sounded intriguing, but the first line cinched it: "The Home Office telegraphy department always smelled of tea."

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

>91 Kek55: Hmmm. Too new to even have a touchstone?

With his free hand, he emptied the hot water from the now-warm teapot, dropped the leaves into the pot, replaced the lid, and shook the pot. Then he paused for a moment. "To allow the leaves to expand," he explained...

Removing the lid again, he passed the teapot under his nose, sniffing first the leaves inside the pot, then the inside of the lid. He reached across the table without a word and passed the leaves under Catherine's nose, too. She inhaled the aroma, as he had done: two deep breaths through her nostrils. It was like...like what? Like roasted chestnuts coming out of the shell. Certain lilies at night. New hay in a stone barn.

- Peg Kingman, Not Yet Drown'd