Quotes about tea

A collection of quotes on the topic of coffee, cooking, food, tea.

Best quotes about tea

“It's always tea-time.”

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

“Love and scandal are the best sweeteneers of tea.”

Henry Fielding Love in Several Masques

Act IV, sc. xi
Love in Several Masques (1728)

“up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky…”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

“While there is tea, there is hope."

()”

Arthur Wing Pinero (1855–1934) British writer

“Distorted realities have always been my cup of tea.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

Source: Selected Diaries

“It makes rock concerts look like tea parties.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

Commenting on American Football, in interview with Howard Cosell on ABC Television (December 1974)

“Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea!”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

“Why sip from a tea cup, when you can drink from the river.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Source: L.A. Story and Roxanne: Screenplays

“Tea… is a religion of the art of life.”

Kakuzo Okakura book The Book of Tea

Source: The Book of Tea

“Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors.”

Alice Walker book The Color Purple

Source: The Color Purple

Quotes about tea

“The day i stop enjoying football is the day ill go to drink tea with my mom”

Juan Román Riquelme (1978) Argentine footballer

Moms, Drink, Football

“An old battleax of a woman said to Winston Churchill, "If you were my husband I would put poison in your tea." Churchill's response, "Ma'am if you were my wife I would drink it.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Drink

“Tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Source: Smothered Under Journalism: 1946

Country

“Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

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

Women, Strong, Water, Funny

“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 (1930) American poet

Love, Coffee, Drink, Beer

“It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.”

Dylan Thomas book A Child's Christmas in Wales

Source: A Child's Christmas in Wales

“Though we eat little flesh and drink no wine,
Yet let's be merry: we'll have tea and toast;
Custards for supper, and an endless host
Of syllabubs and jellies and mince-pies,
And other such ladylike luxuries.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

Letter to Maria Gisborne (1820), l. 302

Drink, Wine

“Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea.”

Alexander Pope The Rape of the Lock

Canto III, line 7.
The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714 and 1717)

“I am not at all interested in immortality, only in the taste of tea.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

From Lu Tong (also spelled as Lu Tung)
Misattributed

“Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. … You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.”

Charlie Parker (1920–1955) American jazz saxophonist and composer

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

Life, Idea, Drink

“She ordered a cup of tea, which proved excessively bad, and this gave her a sense that she was suffering in a romantic cause.”

Henry James book Washington Square

Washington Square, ch. XV.

Sense, Suffering

“You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist

As quoted in Of This and Other Worlds (1982) by Walter Hooper, Preface, p. 9

Books

“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 (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

“The telling of a story, like virtually everything in this life, was always made all the easier by a cup of tea.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Miracle at Speedy Motors

Source: The Miracle at Speedy Motors

Life

“Hold the sadness and pain of samsara in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of the Great Eastern Sun. Then the warrior can make a proper cup of tea.”

Chögyam Trungpa (1939–1987) Tibetan Buddhist lama and writer

Pain, Sadness, Time, Sun

“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

“When I makes tea I makes tea, as old mother Grogan said. And when I makes water I makes water.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Water

“I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear
I like my toast done on one side…"

()”

Sting (1951) English musician

Source: Nothing Like the Sun

Coffee, Drink

“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Attributed in Evan Esar (1949), The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
Misattributed

Funny, Coffee

“Twinkle, twinkle little bat How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a tea-tray in the sky.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

World, Flying

“Come oh come ye tea-thirsty restless ones -- the kettle boils, bubbles and sings, musically.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

Source: Collected Poems and Plays of Rabindranath Tagore

Music, Singing

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady

Life

“Mad Hatter: Would you like a little more tea?
Alice: Well, I haven't had any yet, so I can't very well take more.
March Hare: Ah, you mean you can't very well take less.
Mad Hatter: Yes. You can always take more than nothing.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Madness

“I love tea. Mmmm. I know I'm getting old because I'm startin' get excited about tea. Just sitting in the loungeroom bored ya no. Somebody goes "You want a cup of tea?" and I go "Oar he hor." Start feeling a little bit depressed when it gets to the bottom, I think to myself I'll just make myself another cup, I can feel happy again.”

Carl Barron (1964) Australian comedian

Carl Barron Live (2003)

Love, Feeling, Thinking, Happiness

“My boss treated me like a slave and I felt completely degraded. Then, just once, I did a terrible thing - I peed in his tea! Watching him drink it, my grudges completely dissolved - I never minded making tea for him again.”

Uri Geller (1946) Israeli illusionist

"Uri Geller recalls his pre-spoon-bending days; Interview by Rae Lewis," The Evening Standard (London), November 2, 1998

Drink

“A tall, blonde, jock-type guy walked into one of the restaurants, and at his side was one of the sexiest girls I had ever seen… I followed them in my car for a few minutes, and when they entered a less inhabited area I opened my window and splashed my iced tea all over them.”

Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer

My Twisted World (2014), 19-22, UC Santa Barbara, Building to Violence

Cars, Guy, Girl

“I used to worship the mighty genius of Michael Angelo — that man who was great in poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture — great in every thing he undertook. But I do not want Michael Angelo for breakfast — for luncheon — for dinner — for tea — for supper — for between meals. I like a change, occasionally.”

Mark Twain book The Innocents Abroad

Source: The Innocents Abroad (1869), Ch. 27

Change, Painting

“I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Letter to C. P. Sanger, 23 December, 1929
1920s

Religion

“Business was so bad the other night the orchestra was playing "Tea for One."”

Henny Youngman (1906–1998) American comedian

Don't Put My Name on this Book (1976), p. 92 http://archive.org/stream/dontputmynameont00youn#page/92/mode/2up/search/%22tea+for+one%22

Business, Night

“Now that we're 18 days before the election, Mr. Severely Conservative wants you to think he was severely kidding about everything he said over the last year. He told folks he was the ideal candidate for the Tea Party, now he's telling folks, "What? Who me?" He's forgetting what his own positions are. And he's betting that you will too. I mean, he's changing up so much and backtrackin' and sidesteppin'. We've gotta name this condition that he's going though. I think it's called Romnesia. That's what it's called. I think that's what he's goin' through. Now, I'm not a medical doctor, but I do wanna go over some of the symptoms with you, because I wanna make sure nobody else catches it.You know, if you say you're for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you'd sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work, you might have Romnesia.If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care, you might have a case of Romnesia.If you say you'll protect a woman's right to choose, but you stand up in a primary debate and say that you'd be delighted to sign a law outlying — outlawing that right to choose in all cases — man, you definitely got Romnesia.Now, this extends to other issues. If you say earlier in the year, "I'm gonna give a tax cut to the top 1%", and in a debate you say, "I don't know anything about giving tax cuts to rich folks", you need to get a thermometer, take your temperature, because you've probably got Romnesia.If you say that you're a champion of the coal industry when, while you were governor, you stood in front of a coal plant and said "This plant will kill you" —[audience: Romnesia! ] that's some Romnesia.And if you come down with a case of Romnesia and you can't seem to remember the policies that are still on your website, or the promises you've made over the six years you've been running for President, here's the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions. We can fix you up.. We've got a cure. We can make you well, Virginia. This is a curable disease.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Campaign rally http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/10/19/remarks-president-campaign-event-fairfax-va, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, <br class="br">2012

Women, Disease, Law, Support

“Oh, when I was a little Ghost,
A merry time had we!
Each seated on his favourite post,
We chumped and chawed the buttered toast
They gave us for our tea.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Canto 4, "Hys Nouryture"
Phantasmagoria (1869)

Time

“That is the fourth course, which in future I trust the right hon. Gentleman (Sir R. Peel) will not forget. The right hon. Gentleman tells us to go back to precedents; with him a great measure is always founded on a small precedent. He traces the steam-engine always back to the tea-kettle. His precedents are generally tea-kettle precedents.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1845/apr/11/maynooth-college in the House of Commons (11 April 1845). <br class="br">1840s

Future, Forgetting

“I've smoked ten marijuana cigarettes in my life, and probably the last time I had one near my face was twelve, fifteen years ago. And the reason I did was because, since I do smoke, people would say, "Here, smoke this, you'll get high." So I smoked it, and it gave me a sore throat and made me sleepy. And I must either presume that that's what high means, or something was wrong. But I've never had a positive result from smoking marijuana. It just wasn't my cup of tea. And I never used LSD, never used cocaine, never used heroin or any of that other stuff.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Rolling Stone interview (1988)

Life, People, Time, Marijuana

“Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities … will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual.”

Thomas De Quincey book Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822-1856)

Nature

“You're going to tell me that poverty's nothing to be ashamed of. It's not true, though. If you can't hide it, then it is something to be ashamed of. There's nothing you can do, you're ashamed just the same, the way you're ashamed when you leave a spot on somebody's table. No matter if it's deserved or not, honorable or not, poverty stinks. Yes, stinks, stinks like a ground-floor room off an airshaft, or clothes that need changing. You smell it yourself, as though you were made of sewage. It can't be wiped away. It doesn't help to put on a new hat, any more than rinsing your mouth helps when you're belching your guts out. It's around you and on you and everyone who brushes up against you or looks at you knows it. I know the way women look down on you when you're down at heels. I know it's embarrassing for other people, but the hell with that, it's a lot more embarrassing when it's you. You can't get out of it, you can't get past it, the best thing to do is get plastered, and here" (he reached for his glass and drained it in a deliberately uncouth gulp) "here's the great social problem, here's why the 'lower classes' indulge in alcohol so much more - that problem that countesses and matrons in women's groups rack their brains over at tea. For those few minutes, those few hours, you forget you're an affront to other and to yourself. It's no great distinction to be seen in the company of someone dressed lie this, I know, but it's no fun for me either.”

Stefan Zweig book The Post Office Girl

The Post Office Girl (published posthumously in 1982)

Women, People, Alcohol, Lie

“L.B.J. operated in an environment in which if he got a couple of committee chairmen to agree he had a deal. Those chairmen didn’t have to worry about a Tea Party challenge. About cable news. That model has progressively shifted for each president. It’s not a fear-versus-a-nice-guy approach that is the choice. The question is: How do you shape public opinion and frame an issue so that it’s hard for the opposition to say no. And these days you don’t do that by saying, ‘I’m going to withhold an earmark,’ or ‘I’m not going to appoint your brother-in-law to the federal bench.’”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2012
Context: The gist of Obama’s advice to any would-be president is something like this: You may think that the presidency is essentially a public-relations job. Relations with the public are indeed important, maybe now more than ever, as public opinion is the only tool he has for pressuring an intractable opposition to agree on anything. He admits that he has been guilty, at times, of misreading the public. He badly underestimated, for instance, how little it would cost Republicans politically to oppose ideas they had once advocated, merely because Obama supported them. He thought the other side would pay a bigger price for inflicting damage on the country for the sake of defeating a president. But the idea that he might somehow frighten Congress into doing what he wanted was, to him, clearly absurd. “All of these forces have created an environment in which the incentives for politicians to cooperate don’t function the way they used to,” he said. “L. B. J. operated in an environment in which if he got a couple of committee chairmen to agree he had a deal. Those chairmen didn’t have to worry about a Tea Party challenge. About cable news. That model has progressively shifted for each president. It’s not a fear-versus-a-nice-guy approach that is the choice. The question is: How do you shape public opinion and frame an issue so that it’s hard for the opposition to say no. And these days you don’t do that by saying, ‘I’m going to withhold an earmark,’ or ‘I’m not going to appoint your brother-in-law to the federal bench.’”

Fear, Law, Guy, Question

“A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water. ”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

For women, Strong, Water

“The British have an umbilical cord which has never been cut and through which tea flows constantly. It is curious to watch them in times of sudden horror, tragedy or disaster. The pulse stops apparently, and nothing can be done, and not one move made, until a “nice cup of tea” is quickly made. There is no question that it brings solace and does steady the mind. What a pity all countries are not.”

Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992) German-American actress and singer

Question, Time, Country

“I am a free man-and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion. I need sunshine and paving tones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself with only the music of my heart for company. What do you want of me? When I have something to say, I put it in print. When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me. Your tea poisons me! I owe nothing to anyone, I would've responsible to God alone-if he exited!”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter Four, Pappin

Despair, God, Freedom, Heart

“Usually she ordered a cup of coffee and a cup of tea, as well as a brownie, propping up her sadness with chocolate and caffeine so that it became an anxiety.”

Lorrie Moore (1957) American writer

Source: Like Life

Sadness, Coffee

“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."

Revenge

“I'm so glad you're here," Aphrodite said. "War is coming. Bloodshed is inevitable. So there's really only one thing to do."
"Uh… and that is?" Annabeth ventured.
"Why, have tea and chat, obviously”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

War

“The assaying of tea is an art and not a science. It is the man, and not his instruments, which is the most important.”

Timothy Mo (1950) Novelist

Art, Science

“A quarter past three," she exclaimed, catching sight of the bedside clock. "What a time to be drinking tea!"
"Anytime," Harold told her, "is time to be drinking tea.”

Miss Read (1913–2012) English novelist

Drink, Time, Past

“Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television; solitude is herb tea and soft music. Solitude, quality solitude, is an assertion of self-worth, because only in the stillness can we hear the truth of our own unique voices.”

Pearl Cleage (1948) American novelist

Source: Deals with the Devil, and Other Reasons to Riot

Truth, Music, Coffee, Solitude

“Tea's 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."

(, 1757.)”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Source: Works of Samuel Johnson

Exercises

“Disciples and devotees…what are most of them doing? Worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea!”

Wei Wu Wei (1895–1986) writer

Drink

“I just love family meetings. Very cozy, with the Christmas garlands round the fireplace and a nice pot of tea and a detective from Scotland Yard ready to arrest you.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Love, Family, Christmas

“They don't know what they're in for at Spence, getting me, a ghost of a girl who'll nod and smile and take her tea but who isn't really here.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Smile, Girl

“This is what I miss, Cordelia: not something that’s gone, but something that will never happen. Two old women giggling over their tea.”

Margaret Atwood book Cat's Eye

Source: Cat's Eye

Women

“While her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea”

E.M. Forster book Howards End

Source: Howards End

Heart

“Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Letters and Social Aims

People

“You'll never find a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Books

“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.”

Kakuzo Okakura book The Book of Tea

Source: The Book of Tea

Tear

“Wouldn't it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn't have tea?”

Noel Coward (1899–1973) English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer

Country

“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

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

Books, Home

“Tea. I find that both settles the stomach and concentrates the mind. Wonderful drink, tea.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Drink

“The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem'ry of all that –
No, no! They can't take that away from me!”

Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) American lyricist

"They Can't Take That Away from Me", Shall We Dance.

Way

“The good doctor put a spoon of tea into my honey." "You're drinking tea a honey badger made," Jim said. "What did you expect?”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Drink

“I saw the Fall of Troy! World War Five! I was pushing boxes at the Boston Tea Party! Now I'm gonna die in a dungeon…. [disgustedly] in Cardiff!”

Russell T. Davies (1963) Screenwriter, former executive producer of Doctor Who

War, World, Box

“Show me that I m everywhere and get me home for tea.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Home

“The proper, wise balancing
of one's whole life may depend upon the
feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.”

Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) English novelist

Source: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

Life, Dependency

“Happiness isn't a thing. You can't go out and get it like a cup of tea. It's the way you feel about things.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Fire and Hemlock

Source: Fire and Hemlock (1985), p. 311.

Way, Feeling, Happiness

“The row of dolls watched her impassively from the bookshelf, their tea party propriety almost certainly offended.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Tithe

“But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

“Question your tea spoons.”

Georges Perec (1936–1982) French writer

Species of Spaces and Other Pieces

Question

“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

“Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea: "One table-spoonful to be taken at bedtime.”

Beatrix Potter book The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Source: The Tale of Peter Rabbit

“We live in stirring times- tea-stirring times.”

Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) English novelist

Time

“Nay, father.
Some of us have been killing giants today and aren't in the mood to have a tea party.
- Thor, God of Thunder”

Matt Fraction (1975) American comic book writer

Source: Thor: Ages of Thunder

God, Mood

“Dad has brought me a cup of tea in bed this morning! I said, 'Vati, why are you waking me up in the middle of the night? Are you on fire?”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Source: Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

Night

“I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Thinking

“Making tea is a ritual that stops the world from falling in on you.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Creeping Shadow

Source: The Creeping Shadow

World

“Heaven opened and the water hammered down, reviving the reluctant old well, greenmossing the pigless pigsty, carpet bombing still, tea-colored puddles the way memory bombs still, tea-colored minds.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Color, Way, Water, Memory

“He dunked his tea bag and watched the results critically. “I really must get a new supplier. This tea is pathetic. America just doesn’t understand tea at all.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: The Dead Girls' Dance

Understanding

“Fenworth nodded. "Yes, yes. Urgent, deadly, insidious. The world is in peril and we must rise against evil." The old wizard released the general and patted him on the shoulder. "Tea and cake first, don't you think?”

Donita K. Paul (1950) American writer

Source: DragonQuest

World, Thinking, Evil

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

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.

Drink

“I don't want tea, I want justice!”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Justice

“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)

Food

“Next you will cry about taxation without representation, and throw a basket of tea into the harbor. You are indeed a very Jacobin at heart, and I think I must give up trying to cure you of it; I can but wash my hands and deny responsibility”

Naomi Novik book His Majesty's Dragon

Source: His Majesty's Dragon

Thinking, Heart, Cry

“You know," she said, stirring her tea, "the fastest way to get him off your back is to sleep with him. And tell him you love him. Preferably while in bed."
I smirked and the tea almost came out of my nose. "He'd run like he was on fire.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Love, Way, Sleep

“Tea would arrive, the cakes squatting on cushions of cream, toast in a melting shawl of butter, cups agleam and a faint wisp of steam rising from the teapot shawl.”

Gerald Durrell book My Family and Other Animals

Source: My Family and Other Animals

“Note to self: It's hard to attain a state of no-mind when you're incredibly pumped up on tea and sugar and have to urinate every three and a half minutes.”

Jordan Sonnenblick (1969) American writer

Source: Zen and the Art of Faking It

“Oh come on Pam, they're funny. They're like humans but miniature… tea cup humans!”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

“That cup of tea is definately not down your alley”

Jean Ferris (1939–2015) American children's writer

Source: Once Upon a Marigold

“Jem" I have an assignmation in Soho this evening with a certain attractive someone.

Tessa: Goodness. If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he'll expect you to declare your intentions.
Jem choked on his tea.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“The first sip [of tea] is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.”

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."

Joy, Madness