"With auntie Sue it's any old brew, And dear aunt Jane pours out pure rain, But mother sees we've Co-Op Teas" A London underground train advertisement, circa 1952 (as recalled by David R Perry).
Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things. Chaim Potok: The Chosen
"Kissing is like drinking tea with a tea strainer, you can never get enough." A billboard outside a tea-shop in nothern Copenhagen (as discovered by Karen Nielsen).
"Its liquor is like the sweetest dew from Heaven" -From the 8th-century classic, 'The Classic of Tea' by Lu Yu (trans. F. Carpenter)
"Just presume I'm a paradox in an anomaly, and get on with your tea." --A Timelord in a Dr. Who episode
"I don't drink coffee, I take tea my dear" --Sting, from "Englishman in New York"
"It has never occurred to Mr. Winterbourne to offer me any tea," she said, with her little tormenting manner." "I have offered you advice," Winterbourne rejoined. "I prefer weak tea!" - Henry James (1843-1916) "Daisy Miller"
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. From Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales"
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on Ace, we've got work to do." -The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) in "Survival" (Doctor Who) by Rona Munro
I got nasty habits; I take tea at three. - Mick Jagger (c.1945 - ) "Live with Me"
"It was of such a beverage (tea) that Lotung, a Tang poet, wrote: 'The first cup moistens my lips and throat, the second cup breaks my loneliness, the third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some five thousand volumes of odd ideographs. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration- all the wrong of life passes away through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified; the sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals. The seventh cup- ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of cool wind that raises in my sleeves. Where is Horaisan? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.'" Kakuzo Okakura, "The Book of Tea"
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Jean Luc Picard, star date 41697.9
The leading Fair the Word harmonious gives; Betty around attends with bending Knee. Each white-arm Fair, the painted cup receives; Pours the rich Cream, or stirs the sweetened Tea. Anonymous, "Tea Drinking; a Fragment" (c.1752)
You may go to Carlisle's, and to Almack's too; And I'll give you my head if you find such a host, For coffee, tea, chocolate, butter, and toast; How he welcomes at once all the world and his wife, And how civil to folks he ne'er saw in his life. Christopher Anstey (1724-1805) The New Bath Guide, letter 13, "A Public Benefactor"
"Oh, my friends, be warned by me, That breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea Are all human frame requires...." With that the wretched child expires. Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Cautionary Tales, Henry King
Indeed, Madame, your ladyship is very sparing of your tea; I protest the last I took was no more than water bewitched. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
For her own breakfast she'll project a scheme, Nor take her tea without a stratagem. Edward Young (1683-1765) Love of Fame, Satire 1
It frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea, And dines on the following day. Lewis Carroll, (1832-1898) "The Hunting of the Snark," Stanza
Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots? William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) The Knickleburys on the Rhine
The would -be wits and can't-be gentlemen, I leave them to their daily "tea is ready," Smug coterie and literary lady. George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) "Beppo"
We arg'ed the thing at breakfast, we arg'ed the thing at tea, And the more we arg'ed the question, the more we didn't agree. William Carleton (1794-1869) Farm Ballads, "Bestey and I Are Out"
Here's your arsenic dear. And your weed-killer biscuit. I've throttled your parakeet. I've spat in the vases. I've put cheese in the mouseholes. Here's your... nice tea, dear. Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) Under Milkwood
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice very earnestly. "I've had nothin yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-1898) Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 6
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 Caroll Ibid., Chapter 7
But who hath seen the Grocer Treat housemaids to his tea Or crack a bottle of fish sauce Or stand a man to cheese? Gilbert Keith Chesterton, "Song Against Grocers"
Tea! thou soft, sober, sage and venerable liquid;- thou female tongue-running, smile-smoothing, heart-opening, wink-tippling cordial, to whose glorious insipidity I owe the happiest moment of my life, let me fall prostrate. Colley Cibber (1671-1757) The Lady's Last Stake, Act 1, Scene 1
Free yourself from the slavery of tea and coffee and other slopkettles. William Cobbett (1762-1835) Advice to Yound Men, Letter 1
They are at the end of the gallery; Retired to their tea and scandal, according to their ancient custom. William Congreve (1670-1729) The Double Dealer, Epistle Dedicatory, Act 1, Scene 1
Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And, while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful ev'ning in. William Cowper (1731-1800) "The Task"
Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervouse sensibilities...will always be the favored beverage of the intellectual. Thomas DeQuincy (1875-1959) Confession of an English Opium Eater
"Polly put the kettle on, we'll all have tea." Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Barnaby Rudge
The hot water is to remain upon it (the tea) no longer than whiles you can say the The Miisere Psalm very leisurely. Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665
The progress of this famous plant has been something like the progess of truth; suspected at first, though very palatable to those who had courage to taste it; resisted as it encroached; abused as its popularity seemed to spread; and establishing its triumph at last, in cheering the whole land from the palace to the cottage, only by the slow and resistless efforts of time and its own virtues. Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848)
He traces the steam engine alway back to the tea kettle. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) Speech before House of Commons, 11 April 1845
Teas, Where small talk dies in agonies. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) Peter Bell the Third, Part III, Stanza 12
There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Letters and Social Aims
Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. Henry Fielding (1707-1754) "Love in Several Masques"
Now for the tea of our host Now for the rollicking bun, Now for the muffin and toast, Now for the gay Sally Lunn! Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911)
Do Katydids drink tea? Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) "To an Insect"
There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. Henry James (1843-1916)f Portrait of a Lady
O Tea! O leaves torn from the sacred bough! O stalk, gift born of the great gods! What joyful region bored thee? In what part of the sky Is the fostering earth swollen with your health, bringing increase. Pierre Daniel Huet (c. 1709) "Tea Elegy"
So hear it then, my Rennie dear, Nor hear it with a frown; You cannot make the tea so fast As I can gulp it down. I therefore pray thee, Rennie dear, That thou wilt give to me With cream and sugar softened well, Another dish of tea. Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Untitled
The first cup moistens my lips and throat; The second cup breaks my loneliness; The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs; The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores; At the fifth cup I am purified; The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals. The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves. Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither. Lu Tung (Chinese poet during T'ang Dynasty) "Tea-Drinking"
Tho-tay is not my divarsion. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) Life's Handicap, "The Courting of Dinah Shadd"
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 (1865-1936) "Natural Theology"
So they were married-to be the more together- And found they were never again so much together, Divided by the morning tea, By the evening paper, By children and tradesmen's bills. Louise MacNeice (1907-1963) "Les Sylphides"
The old philosopher is still among us in the brown coat with the metal buttons and the shirt which ought to be at the wash, blinking, puffing, rolling his head, drumming with his fingers, tearing his meat like a tiger, and swallowing his tea in oceans. Thomas Babington Macauley (1800-1859) Life of Johnson
Oh some are fond of Spanish wine, and some are fond of French. And some swallow tay and stuff fit only for a wench. John Masefield (1878-1967) "Captain Stratton's"
Tea, although an Oriental Is a gentleman at least; Cocoa is a cad and coward, Cocoa is a vulgar beast. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) "The Song of Right and Wrong"
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) Victorian British Prime Minister
Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. Sidney Smith (1711-1845) The "English Billy Graham" of his day in a letter.
Here thou, great Anne, whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea. Alexander Pope (1711) The Rape of the Lock
I like a tea smuggler. He is the only honest thief. He robs nothing but the revenue-an abstraction I never cared greatly about. I could go out with him in his mackerel boat, or about his less ostensible business, with some satisfaction. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) John Company clerk, Witches and Other Night Fear
Five and twenty ponies Trotting through the dark; Brandy for the Parson, Baccy for the Clark, Laces for a lady, letters for a spy, And watch the wall, my darling, While the gentlemen go by. English tea smuggler's ballad (1700)
A little tea, one leaf I did not steal. For guiltless bloodsped I to God appeal. Put tea in one scale, human blood in t'other, And think what 'tis to slay a harmless brother. Robert Trotman (1765) Gravestone epitaph of English tea smuggler
No! Ne'er was mingled such a draught In palace, hall or arbor, As freemen brewed and tyrants quaffed That night in Boston Harbor. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) The Ballad of the Boston Tea Party
The naming of teas is a difficult matter, It isn't just one of your everyday games- Some might think you as mad as a hatter Should you tell them each goes by several names. For starters each tea in this world must belong To the families Black or Green or Oolong; Then look more closely as these family trees- Some include Indians along with Chinese. T.S. Eliot The Naming of Cats
It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one's time in looking for the sacred Emperor in the low-class tea shops. Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) The wallet of Kai Lung.
Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey for the tea? Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) "The Olde Vicarage, Grantchester"
Whenever I sit in a high chair For breakfast or dinner or tea, I try to pretend that it's my chair, And that I am a baby of three. A. A. Milne (1882-1956) "Nursery Chairs, The Fourth Chair"
James James Morrison's Mother Said to herself, said she: "I can get right down to the end of the town and be back in time for tea." A. A. Milne (1882-1956) "Disobedience"
When the tea is brought at five o'clock And all the neat curtains are drawn with care, The little black cat with bright green eyes Is suddenly purring there. Harold Monro (1879-1932) "Milk for the Cat"
Come little cottage girl, you seem To want my cup of tea; And will you take a little cream? Now tell the truth to me! Barry Pain (1864-1928) "The Poets at Tea, Wordsworth".
The cozy fire is bright and gay, The merry kettle boils away And hums a cheerful song. I sing the saucer and the cup; Pray, Mary, fill the teapot up, And do not make it strong. Barry Pain (1864-1928) "The Poets at Tea, Cowper".
Matrons, who toss the cup and see The grounds of fate in grounds of tea. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) An Essay on Man
Look here, Steward, If this is coffee, I want tea; but if this is tea, then I wish for coffee. Punch, 1902, vol cxxiii (originally attributed to Abraham Lincoln, c. 1863)
The blessed drink of early morning tea. Jan Struther (1901-1953) "Three Stockings"
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) Letter to Maria Gisborne
My experience...convinced me that tea was better than brandy, and during the last six months in Afica I took no brandy, even when sick taking tea instead. Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) Letter, 1912
In tea-cup times of hood and hoop Or while the patch was worn. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1788-1824) "The Talking Oak".