110 Monastery Quotes
Following is our list of monastery quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about monastic.
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Famous Monastery Quotes
Running is just such a monastery- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal. — George A. Sheehan
Convent - a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness. — Ambrose Bierce
Becoming a monk was a hard decision. Leaving being a monk was harder, but it's given me so much faith in my ability to transition, and that what I learned as a monk can still serve me. — Jay Shetty
At the age of 15, I was obsessed with monasteries… I wanted to be a nun for a while. That’s maybe reflected in my work as a scientist: many hours are spent alone, cut off from the world. — Emmanuelle Charpentier
Then are they truly monks when they live by the labor of their hands. — Benedict of Nursia
You haven't partied until you've partied at dawn in complete silence with Buddhist monks. — Cameron Diaz
I have devoted my energies to the study of the scriptures, observing monastic discipline, and singing the daily services in church; study, teaching, and writing have always been my delight. — Venerable Bede
A hermitage in the forest is the refuge of the narrow-minded misanthrope; a hammock on the ocean is the asylum for the generous distressed. — Herman Melville
A habit does not a monk make. — Francois Rabelais
The monk mindset is, ‘How do I just place this next step?’ Not perfectly, but how do I place this next step with my best intention, process, and habits possible? — Jay Shetty
The temple of our purest thoughts is silence. — Sarah Josepha Hale
I live like a monk: with one toothbrush, one cake of soap, and a pot of cream. — Greta Garbo
I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less. — Dalai Lama
The prayer of the monk is not perfect until he no longer recognizes himself or the fact that he is praying. — Anthony of Padua
The only way to build a meaningful life is to filter out that noise and look within. This is the first step to building your monk mind. — Jay Shetty
Short Monastery Quotes
- In the monastery of your heart, you have a temple where all Buddhas unite. — Milarepa
- Don‘t go to another monastery with your own rules. — Russian Proverbs
- My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk. — John Keats
- Turn your car into a monastery. — Robert Barron
- To keep a faith pure, man had better retire to a monastery. — Walter Lippmann
- I believe there is also a Tim Roth Monastery. — Sayings
- I brought all the instincts of a writer with me into the monastery. — Thomas Merton
Buddhist Monastery Quotes
I recommend computer science to people who practice meditation. The mental structures that are used in computer science are very similar exercises done in Buddhist monasteries. — Frederick Lenz
Work sustains us as bodies and it consumes a great deal of energy. The conservation of energy is the component theme of Buddhist practice and yoga. That is why people live in monasteries. — Frederick Lenz
Society doesn't need that everybody is behaving in the full normal way... like people in a Buddhist monastery... But eccentricity may also connect with the irrational. — John Muir
If you resort to violent methods because the other side has destroyed your monastery, for example, you then have lost not only your monastery, but also your special Buddhist practices of detachment, love, and compassion. — Dalai Lama
Just studying Buddhism, then meditating and going to Buddhist monasteries, talking to Buddhist monks, combined with the Thai people themselves, changed the way I look at the world. — John Burdett
I used to live in Buddhist monasteries and I finally had to leave them because they were just too cluttered for me. They were cluttered up with many thoughts about Buddhism. — Frederick Lenz
Monastic Quotes
If you have an idea of what you want to do in your future, you must go at it with almost monastic obsession. [...] You have to go at it single-mindedly and let nothing get in your way. — Henry Rollins
Cooperation in the most natural thing in the world — Janine Benyus
The God of the incarnation is more domestic than monastic. — Ronald Rolheiser
The curse should no longer rest upon the world itself, but upon that which is sinful in it, and instead of monastic flight from the world the duty is now emphasized of serving God in the world, in every position in life. — Abraham Kuyper
You know, I live a monastic lifestyle. No, I do. I do live in extremes, basically. I go back and forth. Once every six months, I'll have a day where I eat more chocolate than has ever been consumed by a human being. — Jim Carrey
Working conditions for me have always been those of the monastic life: solitude and frugality. Except for frugality, they are contrary to my nature, so much so that work is a violence I do to myself. — Albert Camus
I like the monastic life... in the prayer and the praising... this has charged me with new energy, spiritual energy. This is very important for my ministry outside the monastery. — Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria
Monastic incarceration is castration. — Victor Hugo
I like the church, I like a cowl, I love a prophet of the soul; And on my heart monastic aisles Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles; Yet not for all his faith can see, Would I that cowled churchman be. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Because someone is a lama or is part of a monastic order or claims to be part of a succession, doesn't really mean they know anything. Always examine the individual's consciousness, their ability to transmit light. — Frederick Lenz
Monastic Life Quotes
Working in film, I'm sure you have insight into this, there's something great that only comes by way of interactions with others that a monastic life does not afford. — John Maus
Monastic life cuts off the distractions and emotional entanglements one becomes involved in, in the lay life. — Tenzin Palmo
There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life is all about. — Tenzin Palmo
My Dad used to say that the balance of the world relied on all of the monks who were living outside of society in creative isolation. I don't quite understand the ascetic life or the private life or the monastic private life. But I definitely understand privacy's value. — Sufjan Stevens
Art is a vocation, as much as anything in this world. For the real artist, it is the most natural thing in the world, not as necessary as air and water, perhaps, but as food and water. But we really do lead almost a monastic life, you know; to follow it you very often have to give up something. — Katherine Anne Porter
Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Thinking about monastic ideals is not the same as living up to them, but at any rate such thinking has an important place in a monk's life, because you cannot begin to do anything unless you have some idea what you are trying to do. — Thomas Merton
Monk Quotes
The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path. — Saint John Chrysostom
I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles — Niccolo Machiavelli
My heart has become capable of every form: It is a pasture for gazelles And a monastery for Christian monks, And the pilgrim's Ka'ba, And the tablets of the Torah, And the book of the Koran. I follow the religion of Love: Whatever way love's camel takes, That is my religion, my faith. — Ibn Arabi
All is lost. Monks, monks, monks! — Henry VIII of England
I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing - even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years. — Thelonious Monk
My heart can be pasture for deer and a convent for monks, a temple for idols and a Kaaba for the pilgrims. It is both the tables of the Torah and the Koran. It professes the religion of Love wherever its caravans are heading. Love is my law. Love is my faith. — Ibn Arabi
My heart can take on any form: A meadow for gazelles, A cloister for monks, For the idols, sacred ground, Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim, The tables of the Torah, The scrolls of the Quran. My creed is Love; Wherever its caravan turns along the way, That is my belief, My faith. — Ibn Arabi
I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me. — Mose Allison
The more you know the less you talk. — A. R. Rahman
Just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean you don't have to keep time. — Thelonious Monk
Abbey Quotes
As I passed along the side walls of Westminster Abbey, I hardly saw any thing but marble monuments of great admirals, but which were all too much loaded with finery and ornaments, to make on me at least, the intended impression. — Karl Philipp Moritz
Westminster Abbey, the Tower, a steeple, one church, and then another, presented themselves to our view; and we could now plainly distinguish the high round chimneys on the tops of the houses, which yet seemed to us to form an innumerable number of smaller spires, or steeples. — Karl Philipp Moritz
On a very gloomy dismal day, just such a one as it ought to be, I went to see Westminster Abbey. — Karl Philipp Moritz
It is eerie being all but alone in Westminster Abbey. Without the tourists, there are only the dead, many of them kings and queens. They speak powerfully and put my thoughts into vivid perspective. — A. N. Wilson
Downton Abbey is the most popular drama in the history of public television. When the whole of the TV universe is fragmenting, that isn't just impressive. It's almost impossible. But here we are. — David Bianculli
Anyone suffering Downton Abbey withdrawal symptoms will find an instant tonic. — Allison Pearson
Take these broken wings and learn to fly. — Paul McCartney
Between the action sequences, the pleasure lies in observing impeccably dressed Brits exchanging barbed witticisms - making it, basically, Downton Abbey with cyber crime and shower sex. — Karina Longworth
"If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture--that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves." E.Abbey — Edward Abbey
I've built an 8-track studio in my house that's virtually identical to what they used at Abbey Road, and I also own the 16-track set-up that Led Zeppelin used to record 'Houses of the Holy.' I'm interested in producing, but I'm mostly recording my own stuff. — Lukas Haas
People Writing About Monastery
More Monastery Quotes
Let love lead your soul. Make it a place to retire to, a kind of monastery cave, a retreat for the deepest core of your being. — Farid al-Din Attar
In monasteries, seminaries, retreats and synagogues, they fear hell and seek paradise. Those who know the mysteries of God never let that seed be planted in their souls. — Omar Khayyam
The Church is not a monastery for the isolation of perfect people. It is more like a hospital provided for those who wish to get well. — Jeffrey R. Holland
I made the key discovery for CRISPR there, while living in my scientific monastery in northern Sweden. At the same time, I was very interested in detective stories, searching for enigmas. — Emmanuelle Charpentier
In a few Zen monasteries, every monk has to start his morning with laughter, and has to end his night with laughter - the first thing and the last thing! You try it. . . For no reason! Because there is no reason. Simply, you are again there, still alive - it is a miracle! — Osho
An order given in battle, an instruction issued by the master of a sailing ship, a cry for help, are as powerful in modifying the course of events as any other bodily act...You utter a vow or forge a signature and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman or prison. — Bronislaw Malinowski
My most important projects have been the building and maintaining of schools and medical clinics for my dear friends in the Himalaya and helping restore their beautiful monasteries, too. — Edmund Hillary
And then I think we realized, like any young guys, that blues are not learned in a monastery. You've got to go out there and get your heart broke and then come back and then you can sing the blues. — Keith Richards
Sustainable farms are to today's headlong rush toward global destruction what the monasteries were to the Dark Ages: places to preserve human skills and crafts until some semblance of common sense and common purpose returns to the public mind. — Gene Logsdon
You utter a vow or forge a signature and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman or prison. — Bronislaw Malinowski
When we take the one seat on our meditation cushion we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness. — Jack Kornfield
Satan stations more devils on monastery walls than in the dens of iniquity, for the latter offer no resistance. — Fulton J. Sheen
Possession of books denounced as heretical was made a criminal offense. Copies of such books were burned and destroyed. But in Upper Egypt, someone, possibly a monk from a nearby monastery of St Pachomius, took the banned books and hid them from destruction - in the jar where they remained buried for almost 1,600 years. — Elaine Pagels
Noise pollution is a relative thing. In a city, it's a jet plane taking off. In a monastery, it's a pen that scratches. — Robert Orben
Fatigue can make it hard to have faith. Too much busyness can make it hard to have faith. Too much of too little solitude can impact faith. For that matter, so can a bout of hunger or overwork, anything carried to an extreme. Faith thrives on routine. Look at any monastery and you will see that. Faith keeps on keeping on. — Julia Cameron
A writer arrived at the monastery to write a book about the Master. "People say you are a genius . Are you?" he asked. "You might say so." said the Master, none too modestly. "And what makes one a genius?" "The ability to recognize." "Recognize what?" "The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being. — Anthony De Mello
Nothing more rapidly inclines a person to go into a monastery than reading a book on etiquette. There are so many trivial ways in which it is possible to commit some social sin. — Quentin Crisp
I AM what is called a Feminist. Thirty years ago I left a monastery and began a sane human existence. Within two or three years, I find, I was defending the rights of women. — Joseph McCabe
Moreover, in Russia there was an enormous amount of landed property to be divided, large estates, crown lands, government land, and the estates held by the monasteries. — Herman Gorter
One learns more of Christ in being married and rearing children than in several lifetimes spent in study in a monastery. — Martin Luther
Mystics are all a bit funny in the head anyway," the priest added cynically, "which is why the church locks them all up in mental hospitals and euphemistically calls these institutions monasteries. — Robert Anton Wilson
Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Science is turning into a monastery for the Order of Capitulant Friars. Logical calculus is supposed to supersede man as moralist. We submit to the blackmail of the 'superior knowledge' that has the temerity to assert that nuclear war can be, by derivation, a good thing, because this follows from simple arithmetic. — Stanislaw Lem
I don't think there's any great mystery to writing female characters, so long as you talk to them. If you lived in a monastery and never met any women, maybe it would be difficult. — Ken Follett
The Monks of Cool, whose tiny and exclusive monastery is hidden in a really cool and laid-back valley in the lower Ramtops, have a passing-out test for a novice. He is taken into a room full of all types of clothing and asked: Yo, my son, which of these is the most stylish thing to wear? And the correct answer is: Hey, whatever I select. — Terry Pratchett
The early masters also introduced walking meditation and hard work to the monastery, for too much sitting could reach the point of diminishing returns. — James H. Austin
Sometimes, sitting there on the cushion failing to watch your breath, it can feel like you’re the only weirdo weird enough to be wasting your time in this way. But you’re not! There are generations of weirdos, monasteries full of them, and we have the benefit of their accumulated wisdom. — Jay Michaelson
In a quiet Franciscan monastery kind and silent monks looked after me. After many weeks I was discharged. Unfit for further service. — Ernst Toller
Father monks, why do you fast! Why do you expect reward in heaven for that?...No, saintly monk, you try being virtuous in the world, do good to society, without shutting yourself up in a monastery at other people's expense, and without expecting a reward up aloft for it--you'll find that a bit harder. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
We Americans have always considered Hollywood, at best, a sinkhole of depraved venality. And, of course, it is. It is not a Protective Monastery of Aesthetic Truth. It is a place where everything is incredibly expensive. — David Mamet
Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad. — Neal Stephenson
Village reform is not merely cleaning the roads, constructing schools and worshipping monasteries. It is not mere celebration of festivals. — Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
In Conclusion
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