Irene > Irene's Quotes

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
― C.S. Lewis

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

“My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.”
― Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White

“In Ireland, you go to someone's house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you're really just fine. She asks if you're sure. You say of course you're sure, really, you don't need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don't need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn't mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it's no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting.

In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don't get any damned tea.

I liked the Irish way better.”
― C.E. Murphy, Urban Shaman

“Her tea basket was still lost, but that didn’t seem to matter now. People used to eat loose tea on long journeys. They’d pack it into hard little cakes they’d pull out later, to gnaw on while they warmed their hands by a fire. The tea provided physical sustenance, but it was also considered good for the soul.”
― L.L. Barkat, The Novelist

“Have tea, might write,” Laura returned.”
― L.L. Barkat, The Novelist

“Tea was more than boiling water. There were decisions to be made and a frame of mind to develop, no matter how imperceptible.”
― L.L. Barkat, The Novelist

“She stood by the tea-table in a light-coloured muslin gown, which had a good deal of pink about it. She looked as if she was not attending to the conversation, but solely busy with the tea-cups, among which her round ivory hands moved with pretty, noiseless, daintiness.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

“I thought Mr. Millward never would cease telling us that he was no tea-drinker, and that it was highly injurious to keep loading the stomach with slops to the exclusion of more wholesome sustenance, and so give himself time to finish his fourth cup.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“As the message drained away Vimes stared at the opposite wall, in which the door now opened, after a cursory knock, to reveal the steward bearing that which is guaranteed to frighten away all nightmares, to wit, a cup of hot tea.*
* The sound of the gentle rattle of china cup on china saucer drives away all demons, a little-known fact.”
― Terry Pratchett, Snuff

“But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup.”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

“I'd watch her, amazed at just how much a person could accomplish fueled by tea and regret.”
― Katja Millay, The Sea of Tranquility

“Only an idiot would rely on the energy of a bean or a leaf to stay awake throughout the day.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Destroy Me

“Wouldn't it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn't have tea?”
― Noel Coward

“Tea is the magic key to the vault where my brain is kept.”
― Frances Hardinge

“Fenworth nodded. "Yes, yes. Urgent, deadly, insidious. The world is in peril and we must rise against evil." The old wizard released the general and patted him on the shoulder. "Tea and cake first, don't you think?”
― Donita K. Paul, DragonQuest

“Afternoon tea should be provided, fresh supplies, with thin bread-and-butter, fancy pastries, cakes, etc., being brought in as other guests arrive.”
― Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management

“Tea! Thou soft, thou sober,
sage and venerable liquid ...
to whose glorious insipidity,
I owe the happiest moments of my life,
let me fall prostrate.”
― Colley Cibber, The Lady's Last Stake, or the Wife's Resentment. a Comedy. as It Is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, in Crow-Street, by His Majesty's Servants.

“He brewed his tea in a blue china pot, poured it into a chipped white cup with forget-me-nots on the handle, and dropped in a dollop of honey and cream. He sat by the window, cup in hand, watching the first snow fall. "I am," he sighed deeply, "contented as a clam. I am a most happy man.”
― Ethel Pochocki, Wildflower Tea

“Peter swept aside Yogi Tea and Harmony Herbal Blend, though he hesitated a second over the chamomile. .... But no. Violent death demanded Earl Grey.”
― Louise Penny , Still Life

“She gave in to a hankering for a cup of tea even though she knew that the idea of a cup of tea-sitting still, calmly sipping-was more appealing than actually sitting still and trying to calmly sip.”
― Maryanne O'Hara, Cascade

“Presently, out from the wrappings came a teapot, which caused her to clasp her hands with delight, for it was made in the likeness of a plump little Chinaman ... Two pretty cups with covers, and a fine scarlet tray, completed the set, and made one long to have a "dish of tea," even in Chinese style, without cream or sugar.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Eight Cousins

“In Britain, a cup of tea is the answer to every problem.
Fallen off your bicycle? Nice cup of tea.
Your house has been destroyed by a meteorite? Nice cup of tea and a biscuit.
Your entire family has been eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex that has travelled through a space/time portal? Nice cup of tea and a piece of cake. Possibly a savoury option would be welcome here too, for example a Scotch egg or a sausage roll.”
― David Walliams, Mr Stink

“Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea!”
― Agatha Christie

“That's what sofas are for: sit down, drink a cup of tea, talk of literature. At least that's how I see it.”
― Sophie Divry, Signatura 400

“I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear
I like my toast done on one side ..."

(Englishman in New York)”
― Sting, Nothing Like the Sun

“Tea at the Ritz is the last delicious morsel of Edwardian London. The light is kind, the cakes are frivolous and the tempo is calm, confident and leisurely.”
― Helen Simpson, The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea

“Nowhere is the English genius of domesticity more notably evident than in the festival of afternoon tea. The [...] chink of cups and the saucers tunes the mind to happy repose.”
― George R. Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft

“In a few minutes tea was brought. Very delicate was the china, very old the plate, very thin the bread-and-butter, and very small the lumps of sugar. Sugar was evidently Mrs. Jamieson's favourite economy.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

“I was learning, even in my brief time in England, that a cup of tea almost always helped. I didn't know whether it was the caffeine, the warmth, or the simple fact of having someone else do something kind, but a soothing cup of tea in Harriet Dalrymple's cottage was fast becoming my lifeline to sanity.”
― Beth Pattillo