“Kevin was a shell game in which all three cups were empty.”
Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin
Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin
“The Vinyl Solution.” in Musician, Player, and Listener 24 (April-May 1980): 34.
Elsewhere
“Kevin was a shell game in which all three cups were empty.”
Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin
Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin
“In former days I wanted wine to drink;
The wine this morning fills the cup in vain.”
Tao Yuanming (365–427) Chinese poet
Second of three poems ("Three Dirges") written by Tao Yuanming in 427, the same year he died at the age of 63, and often read as poems written for his own funeral.
John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau (eds.), Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations (2000), p. 513
Context: In former days I wanted wine to drink;
The wine this morning fills the cup in vain.
I see the spring mead with its floating foam,
And wonder when to taste of it again.
The feast before me lavishly is spread,
My relatives and friends beside me cry.
I wish to speak but lips can shape no voice,
I wish to see but light has left my eye.
I slept of old within the lofty hall,
Amidst wild weeds to rest I now descend.
When once I pass beyond the city gate
I shall return to darkness without end.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author
St. 22.
De Profundis (1862)
Context: Whatever's lost, it first was won;
We will not struggle nor impugn.
Perhaps the cup was broken here,
That Heaven's new wine might show more clear.
I praise Thee while my days go on.
“I hold a cup of wisdom,
But there is nothing within.”
Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer
Song lyrics, The Dreaming (1982)
“Wake up and smell the coffee
Is your cup half full or empty?”
Billie Eilish (2001) American singer-songwriter
"Come Out and Play" (20 November 2018) · YouTube audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXFdnHiGwos, co-written with Finneas O'Connell. <br class="br">Singles (2017 - )
“What goes best with a cup of coffee? Another cup.”
Henry Rollins book Black Coffee Blues
Source: Black Coffee Blues
“Enjoy a cup of wine while you're alive!
Do not care if your fame will not survive!”
Li Bai (701–762) Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period
"Hard Is the Way of the World" III http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?no=84&l=Tangshi, trans. Witter Bynner
“Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 373.
“There are two things in life that keep me motivated, a cup of coffee and a second cup of coffee.”
Craig Benzine (1980) Filmmaker, comedian, presenter
Source: Robert Galinsky (2013) Coffee Crazy, p. 88