If she speaks, it will only be a pleasant word or two; should she have anything important to say, the moment will be after tea, not before it; this she knows by instinct. – George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903 (of the housekeeper b

In vino Veritas. In Aqua satietas. In… What is the Latin for Tea? What! Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone. – Hilaire Belloc, “On Tea,” 1908

Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty. – James Norwood Pratt