The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism. . . for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion … - Okakura Kakuzo

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The arts are the only things that separate us from the other animals. The arts are not decorative. . . . They are essential to our comprehension of consciousness and ourselves.

Okakura Kakuzo

The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism. . . for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe.

Aestheticism, Hygiene, Men, Nature, Philosophy, Simplicity

Same Author Quotes

For life is an expression, our unconscious actions the constant betrayal of our innermost thought. Perhaps we reveal ourselves too much in small things because we have so little of the great to conceal. The tiny incidents of daily rouitine are as much a commentary of racial ideas as the highest flight of philosophy or poetry.

Appreciation, Betrayal, Constant, Life, Poetry, Reveal

Tea with us became more than an idealisation of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life. The beverage grew to be an excuse for the worship of purity and refinement, a sacred function at which the host and guest joined to produce for that occasion the utmost beatitude of the mundane.

Art, Became, Drinking, Grew, Religion, Sacred

Translation is always a treason, and as a Ming author observes, can at its best be only the reverse side of a brocade- all the threads are there, but not the subtlety of colour or design.

Author, Design, Side, Sides, Thread, Translation

The outsider may indeed wonder at this seeming much ado about nothing. What a tempest in a tea-cup! he will say. 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.

Ado, Enjoyment, Infinity, May, Tea, Wonder

Tea is a work of art and needs a master hand to bring out its noblest qualities. We have good and bad teas, as we have good and bad paintings - generally the latter.

Art, Hands, Master, Needs, Tea