„Believe you can and you're halfway there.“
— Theodore Roosevelt American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858 - 1919
Quotes about tea
A collection of quotes on the topic of cooking, coffee, food, tea.
Best quotes about tea
„You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.“
— Zig Ziglar American motivational speaker 1926 - 2012
„Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.“
— Margaret Mead American anthropologist 1901 - 1978
Variant: Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
„Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.“
— John Donne English poet 1572 - 1631
Source: The Poems of John Donne; Miscellaneous Poems (Songs and Sonnets) Elegies. Epithalamions, or Marriage Songs. Satires. Epigrams. the Progress of
„Either you run the day, or the day runs you.“
— Jim Rohn American motivational speaker 1930 - 2009
„The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there.“
— Robert M. Pirsig, book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 20
Context: Zen is the "spirit of the valley." The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
„There is only one success … to be able to spend your life in your own way.“
— Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins
Where the Blue Begins (1922)
„You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.“
— Wayne W. Dyer American writer 1940 - 2015
All quotes about tea
Total 372 quotes tea, filter:
— Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981
Could you be loved
Uprising (1979)
Variant: I know that I'm not perfect and that I don't claim to be,
so before you point your fingers make sure your hands are clean.
Context: Who are you to judge the life I live?
I know that I'm not perfect and that I don't claim to be,
so before you point your fingers make sure your hands are clean.
— Oprah Winfrey American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist 1954
Variant: Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.
— Tupac Shakur rapper and actor 1971 - 1996
Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)
Variant: You grow, we all grow, we're made to grow. You either evolve or disappear.
„Let the world change you and you can change the world“
— Ernesto Che Guevara Argentine Marxist revolutionary 1928 - 1967
„If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.“
— Timothy Leary American psychologist 1920 - 1996
Changing My Mind, Among Others (1982)
— Charlie Parker American jazz saxophonist and composer 1920 - 1955
As quoted in Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It (1955) edited by by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, p. 379
— Anthony Hopkins Welsh stage and television actor 1937
"Sir Anthony Hopkins: I couldn't be an atheist". https://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2011/02/11/sir-anthony-hopkins-i-couldnt-be-an-atheist/ (February 11, 2011)
„You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.“
— Clive Staples Lewis Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist 1898 - 1963
As quoted in Of This and Other Worlds (1982) by Walter Hooper, Preface, p. 9
— William Ewart Gladstone British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom 1809 - 1898
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations
Niemand kann dir die Brücke bauen, auf der gerade du über den Fluß des Lebens schreiten mußt, niemand außer dir allein.
“Schopenhauer as educator,” § 3.1, R. Hollingdale, trans. (1983), p. 129
Untimely Meditations (1876)
„If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.“
— Eleanor Roosevelt American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States 1884 - 1962
„Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.“
— Eleanor Roosevelt American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States 1884 - 1962
Another quote often attributed to her without an original source in her writings, as in The Wit and Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt (1996), p. 199. But once again archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
A very similar remark was attributed to Nancy Reagan, in The Observer (29 March 1981): "A woman is like a teabag — only in hot water do you realize how strong she is."
Variants:
A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.
A woman is like a tea bag, you can not tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
A woman is like a tea bag; you can't tell how strong she is and how much to trust her until you put her in hot water.
Disputed
„Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.“
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
„I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear
I like my toast done on one side…"
()“
— Sting English musician 1951
Source: Nothing Like the Sun
— Pablo Picasso Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer 1881 - 1973
As quoted in Life with Picasso, by François Gilot, 1964, p. 60
1940s
— Napoleon Hill American author 1883 - 1970
Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
— Uri Geller Israeli illusionist 1946
"Uri Geller recalls his pre-spoon-bending days; Interview by Rae Lewis," The Evening Standard (London), November 2, 1998
— Elliot Rodger American spree killer 1991 - 2014
My Twisted World (2014), 19-22, UC Santa Barbara, Building to Violence
— Thomas De Quincey, book Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822-1856)
„Unfortunately, we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing.“
— Cassandra Clare, book City of Bones
Hodge and Clary, pg. 75
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)
Context: "Is there anything I could get for you?" he asked. "Something to drink? Some tea?"
"I don't want tea," said Clary, with a 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."
„Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea!“
— Agatha Christie English mystery and detective writer 1890 - 1976
— Pearl Cleage American novelist 1948
Source: Deals with the Devil, and Other Reasons to Riot
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Variant: They're a rotten lot," I shouted, across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.
Source: The Great Gatsby
„While her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea“
— E.M. Forster, book Howards End
Source: Howards End
„Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.“
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
Source: Letters and Social Aims
„You'll never find a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.“
— Winston S. Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874 - 1965
„Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.“
— Wayne W. Dyer American writer 1940 - 2015
„Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors.“
— Alice Walker, book The Color Purple
Source: The Color Purple
„Wouldn't it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn't have tea?“
— Noel Coward English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer 1899 - 1973
„Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.“
— Bill Watterson American comic artist 1958
Variant: Blustery cold days should be spend propped up in bed with a mug of hot chocolate and a pile of comic books.
Source: The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book
— Ira Gershwin American lyricist 1896 - 1983
"They Can't Take That Away from Me", Shall We Dance.
„Tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country.“
— George Orwell English author and journalist 1903 - 1950
Source: Smothered Under Journalism: 1946
— Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Bleeds
„Tea… is a religion of the art of life.“
— Kakuzo Okakura, book The Book of Tea
Source: The Book of Tea
„Why sip from a tea cup, when you can drink from the river.“
— Steve Martin American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer 1945
Source: L.A. Story and Roxanne: Screenplays
„Show me that I m everywhere and get me home for tea.“
— George Harrison British musician, former member of the Beatles 1943 - 2001
— Diana Wynne Jones, book Fire and Hemlock
Source: Fire and Hemlock (1985), p. 311.
— Winston S. Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874 - 1965
Dates to 1899, American humor origin, originally featuring a woman upset by a man's cigar smoking. Cigar often removed in later versions, coffee added in 1900. Incorrectly attributed in Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Glitter and Gold (1952).
See various early citations and references to refutations at “If you were my husband, I’d poison your coffee” (Nancy Astor to Churchill?) http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/if_you_were_my_husband_id_poison_your_coffee_nancy_astor_to_churchill, Barry Popik, The Big Apple,' February 09, 2009
Early examples include 19 November 1899, Gazette-Telegraph (CO), "Tales of the Town," p. 7, and early attributions are to American humorists Marshall P. Wilder and De Wolf Hopper.
Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations, by Richard Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 578.
The Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Fred R. Shapiro, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2006, p. 155.
George Thayer, The Washington Post (April 27, 1971), p. B6.
Misattributed
Variant: Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your morning coffee.
Winston Churchill: Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it.
— Lewis Carroll, book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Variant: Yes, that's it! Said the Hatter with a sigh, it's always tea time.
Source: Alice in Wonderland
— Dr. Seuss American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books 1904 - 1991
Variant: You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
„But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea.“
— Jane Austen, book Mansfield Park
Source: Mansfield Park
„Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea.“
— Mary Elizabeth Braddon, book Lady Audley's Secret
Source: Lady Audley's Secret
„something almost, but not quite entirely unlike tea“
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy
Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
„We live in stirring times- tea-stirring times.“
— Christopher Isherwood English novelist 1904 - 1986
— Louise Rennison British writer 1951 - 2016
Source: Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants
— Dodie Smith, book I Capture the Castle
Source: I Capture the Castle
„Making tea is a ritual that stops the world from falling in on you.“
— Jonathan Stroud, book The Creeping Shadow
Source: The Creeping Shadow
— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910
Variant: Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
„Well that was the silliest tea party I ever went to! I am never going back there again!“
— Lewis Carroll, book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Source: Alice in Wonderland
„Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves“
— Thich Nhat Hanh Religious leader and peace activist 1926
The Miracle of Mindfulness (1999)
Context: Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.
„The Chinese say it is better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one.“
— Khaled Hosseini, book A Thousand Splendid Suns
Laila, p. 250
Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
— Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Burns
„The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.“
— John Burroughs American naturalist and essayist 1837 - 1921
„That cup of tea is definately not down your alley“
— Jean Ferris American children's writer 1939 - 2015
Source: Once Upon a Marigold
— Jack Kerouac, book The Dharma Bums
Source: The Dharma Bums (1958)
Context: "Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea," said Japhy. "Remember that book I told you about; the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy."
„There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.“
— Lin Yutang, book The Importance of Living
Source: The Importance of Living (1937), p. 224