Kakuzo Okakura quotes

The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings. (Kakuzo Okakura)
Tea... is a religion of the art of life. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally complete the incomplete. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
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. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
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 social order. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
A garden is a friend you can visit any time. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
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. (Kakuzo Okakura)
New York City vagrant: "What sort of 'nese are you people? Are you Chinese, or Japanese, or Javanese?" Kakuzo Okakura responds: "We are Japanese gentleman. But what sort of 'key are you? Are you a Yankee, or a donkey, or a monkey? View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
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. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
We catch a glimpse of the great river of science which never ceases to flow in India. For India has carried and scattered the data of intellectual progress for the whole world, ever since the pre-Buddhist period when she produced the Sankhya philosophy and the atomic theory. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
Asia is one. The Himalayas divide, only to accentuate, two mighty civilisations, the Chinese with its communism of Confucius, and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas. But not even the snowy barriers can interrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal, which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling them to produce all the great religions of the world, and distinguishing them from those maritime peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, who love to dwell on the Particular, and to search out the means, not the end, of life. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
It (Teaism) is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
Tea is a work of art and needs a master hand to bring out its noblest qualities. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
Friends are flowers in life's garden. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura
The canvas upon which the artist paints is the spectator's mind. (Kakuzo Okakura)
The art of today is that which really belongs to us: it is our own reflection. In condemning it we but condemn ourselves. View quote
Kakuzo Okakura