Okakura Kakuzō

Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence…. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life. – Okakura Kakuzō

In the worship of Bacchus, we have sacrificed too freely…. Why not consecrate ourselves to the queen of the Camelias, and revel in the warm stream of sympathy that flows from her altar? In the liquid amber within the ivory-porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius… – Okakura Kakuzō

Tea with us became more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life…. Teaism was Taoism in disguise. – Okakura Kakuzō