In Japan, I took part in a tea ceremony. You go into a small room, tea is served, and that's it really, except that everything is done with so much ritual and ceremony that a banal daily event is transformed into a moment of communion with the universe.

In our common parlance we speak of the man "with no tea" in him, when he is insusceptible to the serio-comic interests of the personal drama.

Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.

Fain would we remain barbarians, if our claim to civilization were to be based on the gruesome glory of war.

Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life.

Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it.

Tea...is a religion of the art of life.