“In the liquid amber within the ivory porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius, the piquancy of Laotse, and the ethereal aroma of Sakyamuni himself.”

“We are ever brutal to those who love and serve us in silence, but the time may come when, for our cruelty, we shall be deserted by these best friends of ours.”

“People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly.”

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

“Our standards of morality are begotten of the past needs of society, but is society to remain always the same?”

“True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally complete the incomplete.”

“I have little use for religion as it is practiced, or for astrology, or for belief in witchcraft or omens of good or ill-luck. I think they all stem from some insufficiency in mens minds, perhaps f...”

“It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent.”

“So if you can look at all things without allowing pleasure to creep in - at a face, a bird, the colour of a sari, the beauty of a sheet of water shimmering in the sun, or anything that gives deligh...”

“Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending t...”

“Have tea, might write, Laura returned.”

“Pour, varlet, pour the waterThe water steaming hot!A spoonful for each man of usAnother for the pot!”