“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.” ArtFormReligionProduceGrewWorshipFunctionSacredDrinkingExcuseOccasionsTeaPurityHostGuestsMundaneRefinementBeverages Book:The Book of Tea: Classic Edition Source: The Book of Tea: Classic Edition
“So we must work at our profession and not make anybody else's idleness an excuse for our own. There is no lack of readers and listeners; it is for us to produce something worth being written and heard.” WrittenHeardProduceReaderExcuseProfessionListenersIdleness Book:Letters and Panegyricus [of] Pliny Source: Letters and Panegyricus [of] Pliny
“The first and most important thing to understand about politics is this: forget Right, Left, Center, socialism, fascism, or democracy. Every government that exists - or ever existed, or ever will exist - is a kleptocracy, meaning "rule by thieves." Competing ideologies merely provide different excuses to separate the Productive Class from what they produce.” FirstsImportantDifferentGovernmentLeftForgetClassDemocracyProduceImportant ThingsExcuseSocialismIdeologyProductiveFascismThievesCompeting Author:L. Neil Smith
“I think the most important challenge that remains is this mentality in Washington that sanctions have been an asset, and some people want to find even an excuse to keep them or an excuse to reintroduce them. I don't know whether they've looked at the record of how sanctions actually produce exactly the opposite of what they wanted to produce.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantHas BeensImportantWantedChallengesRecordsProduceOppositesRemainsExcuseAssetsMentalitySanctions Author:Mohammad Javad Zarif