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Tea Quotes

Tea was first discovered by the Chinese and was a favorite beverage of the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2737 B.C. In the nearly 5000 years that followed, tea grew in popularity and refinement, becoming popular in many countries and regions. Tea drinking became common in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, initially in English high society, and then through out the whole populace. Tea soon became a corner stone of English culture. Today the average English person drinks 3.5 cups of tea per day in comparison to 1.7 cups of coffee. The following quotes come from literature and various other sources.

"My dear, if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head I should better understand your affairs." --Charles Dickens

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

"Wherever I go, I will always have my tea." --Gustav Wasa

"...Mrs. Gubbins came in with a tray of tea things and a plate of biscuits of the sort that I believe are called teatime variety, and everyone stirred friskily to life, rubbing their hands keenly and saying, 'Ooh, lovely.' To this day, I remain impressed by the ability of Britons of all ages and social backgrounds to get genuinely excited by the prospect of a hot beverage." --Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island

"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 Gladstone

"Now, how delicious is the soft yet penetrating odor which floats into my study with the appearance of the teapot! What solace in the first cup, what deliberate sipping of that which follows! What a glow does it bring after a walk in chilly rain?" --George Gissing

"I don't drink coffee; I take tea, my dear." --Sting, in An Englishman in New York

"Ecstacy is a glass of tea and a piece of sugar in the mouth." --Alexander Puskin

"Thou soft, thou sober, sage and venerable liquid! Thou innocent pretense for bringing the wicked of both sexes together in the morning! Thou female toungue-running, smile-soothing, heart-opening, wink-tipping cordial to whose glorious insipidity I can owe the happiest moments of my life." --Colby Cibber

"[I am] a hardened and shameless tea drinker, who for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of the fascinating plant; who with tea amused the evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed the morning." --Samuel Johnson

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

"Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world." --T'ien Yiheng

"You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." --C.S. Lewis

"We live in stirring times--tea-stirring times." --Christopher Isherwood

"In nothing more is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival--almost one may call it--of afternoon tea...The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose." --George Gissing

"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee." --Abraham Lincoln