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 KakuzÅ
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 KakuzÅ
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 KakuzÅ
…creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like a forest floor newly swept by rain. – Luwuh, Chaking, regarding selection of the best quality tea leaves