Okakura Kakuzo Quotes

• The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Inspirational, Life, Change

  "The Book of Tea".

  44 Copy quote

• Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Life, Running, Appreciation

  Okakura Kakuzo (2012). “The Book of Tea: Classic Edition”, p.13, Tuttle Publishing

  77 Copy quote

• It is not the accumulation of extraneous knowledge, but the realization of the self within, that constitutes true progress.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Self, Progress, Realization

  26 Copy quote

• Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Beautiful, Dream, Tea

  Okakura Kakuzo (2000). “The Book of Tea the Illustrated Classic Edition”, p.1, Tuttle Publishing

  33 Copy quote

• A garden is a friend you can visit any time.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Garden, Gardening, Garden Love

  32 Copy quote

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

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Life, Art, Drinking

  Kakuzo Okakura (2008). “The Book of Tea”, p.43, Applewood Books

  27 Copy quote

• Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Perfection, Recognise, Ifs

  Okakura Kakuzo (2012). “The Book of Tea: Classic Edition”, p.46, Tuttle Publishing

  22 Copy quote

• We take refuge in pride, because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Truth, Pride, Telling The Truth

  Okakura Kakuzo (2012). “The Book of Tea: Classic Edition”, p.24, Tuttle Publishing

  26 Copy quote

• Friends are flowers in life's garden.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Flower, Garden

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Japan, Small Rooms, Perfection

  17 Copy quote

• In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Flower, Sadness, Garden

  Okakura Kakuzo (2000). “The Book of Tea the Illustrated Classic Edition”, p.84, Tuttle Publishing

  67 Copy quote

• Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Beautiful, Dream, Bamboo

  Okakura Kakuzo (2000). “The Book of Tea the Illustrated Classic Edition”, p.1, Tuttle Publishing

  96 Copy quote

• 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.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Beautiful, Order, Tea

  Andrew Forbes, David Henley, Okakura Kakuzo “The Illustrated Book of Tea”

  28 Copy quote

• Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Creativity, Sadness, Artist

  Andrew Forbes, David Henley, Okakura Kakuzo “The Illustrated Book of Tea”

  26 Copy quote

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

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Inner Beauty, True Beauty, Incomplete

  Kakuzo Okakura (2008). “The Book of Tea”, p.95, Applewood Books

  21 Copy quote

• Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Medicine, Tea, Beverages

  Andrew Forbes, David Henley, Okakura Kakuzo “The Illustrated Book of Tea”

  18 Copy quote

• Cares melt when you kneel in your garden.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Garden, Care, Gardening

  30 Copy quote

• The ancient sages never put their teachings in a systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended by making their hearers wise.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Wise, Teaching, Talking

  Okakura Kakuzo (2012). “The Book of Tea: Classic Edition”, p.22, Tuttle Publishing

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Men, Understanding, Tea

  "The Book of Tea". Book by Okakura Kakuzo, 1906.

  27 Copy quote

• 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.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Philosophy, Men, Views

  Andrew Forbes, David Henley, Okakura Kakuzo “The Illustrated Book of Tea”

  8 Copy quote

• The canvas upon which the artist paints is the spectator's mind.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Artist, Mind, Canvas

  12 Copy quote

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

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Art, Tea, Cups Of Tea

  Kakuzo Okakura (2008). “The Book of Tea”, p.43, Applewood Books

  12 Copy quote

• 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 Kakuzo

  Sweet, Queens, Ivory

  Okakura Kakuzo (2000). “The Book of Tea the Illustrated Classic Edition”, p.30, Tuttle Publishing

  17 Copy quote

• 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.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Life, Appreciation, Betrayal

  Okakura Kakuzo (2012). “The Book of Tea: Classic Edition”, p.17, Tuttle Publishing

  9 Copy quote

• The art of today is that which really belongs to us: it is our own reflection. In condemning it we but condemn ourselves.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Art, Reflection, Today

  Okakura Kakuzo (2000). “The Book of Tea the Illustrated Classic Edition”, p.81, Tuttle Publishing

  15 Copy quote

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