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Monasteries Quotes

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Monasteries Quotes

“To be loved by a pure young girl, to be the first to reveal to her the strange mystery of love, is indeed a great happiness, but it is the simplest thing in the world. To take captive a heart which has had no experience of attack, is to enter an unfortified and ungarrisoned city. Education, family feeling, the sense of duty, the family, are strong sentinels, but there are no sentinels so vigilant as not to be deceived by a girl of sixteen to whom nature, by the voice of the man she loves, gives the first counsels of love, all the more ardent because they seem so pure. The more a girl believes in goodness, the more easily will she give way, if not to her lover, at least to love, for being without mistrust she is without force, and to win her love is a triumph that can be gained by any young man of five-and-twenty. See how young girls are watched and guarded! The walls of convents are not high enough, mothers have no locks strong enough, religion has no duties constant enough, to shut these charming birds in their cages, cages not even strewn with flowers. Then how surely must they desire the world which is hidden from them, how surely must they find it tempting, how surely must they listen to the first voice which comes to tell its secrets through their bars, and bless the hand which is the first to raise a corner of the mysterious veil!”

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Book:La dame aux camélias
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“Ξάφνου μ' ένα χαμόγελο θυμόμουν τους πατέρες Διόνυσο και Γαβριήλ, τους αδερφούς Θεοφύλακτο, Χρίστο και Πολύκαρπο, τους γενάτους, μακρυμάλληδες, καλημαυχοφόρους οικοδεσπότες και προστάτες μου στην Κρήτη κατά την διάρκεια του πολέμου, που ‘βάζαν τις ρακές, έσπαγαν καρύδια, έλεγαν τραγούδια του βουνού, έλυναν κι έδεναν πιστόλια, μου έκαναν ατελείωτες ερωτήσεις για τον Τσόρτσιλ και ροχάλιζαν κάτω από τα λιόδεντρα, ενώ οι αχτίδες του ήλιου έπεφταν κάθετα στο Λιβυκό Πέλαγος.”

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Book:A Time to Keep Silence
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“Ο χρόνος σ΄ένα μοναστήρι περνά με ανησυχητική ταχύτητα. Εκτός από τις μεγάλες γιορτές της Εκκλησίας, δεν υπάρχουν άλλα ορόσημα που να τον χωρίζουν πέραν του κύκλου των εποχών. Και διαπίστωσα ότι οι μέρες, και σύντομα οι εβδομάδες, περνούσαν σχεδόν απαρατήρητες. Η ταχύτητα της παρέλευσης του χρόνου είναι ένα φαινόμενο που το προσέχει κάθε μοναχός: έξι μήνες, ένα χρόνος, δεκαπέντε χρόνια, μια ζωή, σύντομα τελειώνουν.”

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Book:A Time to Keep Silence
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“Meditation periods in monasteries can be as long as fifty minutes or more, but this is appropriate only if it does not cause too much discomfort and if one is able to maintain concentration for that long. During intensive Zen retreats, called sesshin, practitioners sit for twelve hours or more per day. But don't let this scare you off, just as it should not scare off beginning joggers to know that some super-athletes run double marathons. Always start where you are. After all, where else could you start?”

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Book:Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism
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“In all monasteries, there can be found examples of monks who have ordained for the two reasons that the average Korean presumes most common: failure in love or laziness. Any organization as large as the Buddhist church will be certain to attract its share of seeming undesirables. But one point that monks often made to me is that regardless of the initial motivation that prompts a man to assume a religious vocation, continued involvement in the monastic life may remold that motivation into an entirely exemplary one. Indeed, there is no way of predicting from a monk's background his ultimate success in the religious life. I knew several monks from devoted Buddhist families who ordained out of strong personal faith but were unable to adjust to the difficult lifestyle of the monastery and ended up disrobing. Finally, as monks reiterate time and again, it is not why a man initially wants to become a monk that determines the quality of his vocation, but how well he leads the life once he has ordained.”

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Book:The Zen Monastic Experience
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“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.”

MayHelpingOrderCoursesGivenPowerfulEventsCryMastersBattleCommitmentPrisonBoundsShipsFinding YourselfInstructionSailingVowSignaturesMonasteriesSailing ShipsModifying
Author:Bronislaw Malinowski
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“We don't get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we've chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the team could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we've all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldRunningLife IsDiesChanceCompanyCreativityOur LivesTeamSittingGolfChosenExcellentDamnJapanWorth ItSailingPlaying GolfMonasteriesDamn Good
Author:Steve Jobs
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“Sri Yukteswar used to poke gentle fun at the commonly inadequate conceptions of renunciation."A beggar cannot renounce wealth," Master would say. "If a man laments: 'My business has failed; my wife has left me; I will renounce all and enter a monastery,' to what worldly sacrifice is he referring? He did not renounce wealth and love; they renounced him!"Saints like Gandhi, on the other hand, have made not only tangible material sacrifices, but also the more difficult renunciation of selfish motive and private goal, merging their inmost being in the stream of humanity as a whole.”

IfsMenMadeWholeHandsUsedHumanityLeftFunDifficultGoalWealthWifeSacrificeMaterialsMastersAnd LoveSaintMy WifeSelfishGentleMotiveStreamsConceptionWorldlyTangibleBeggarInadequateRenounceReferringRenunciationLamentPokeMonasteriesMergingSelfish Motives
Book:Autobiography of a Yogi
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“Secret Instructions for Reaching Xanadu: Go eastward from the Bewildered-Dragon Lake Until you see the Monastery of the West Tower straight and high above your head. Then take Those charms which, as I told you, in the breast Of your most inner robe you have hidden, and follow Their clear instruction.”

SecretClearWestCharmReachingBreastsLakesDragonsInstructionTowersRobesBewilderedMonasteries
Book:Selected Poems: With a Preface on the Nature of Poetry
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“Henceforward the Christian Churches having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, came into the hands of the Encratites: and the Heathens, who in the fourth century came over in great numbers to the Christians, embraced more readily this sort of Christianity, as having a greater affinity with their old superstitions, than that of the sincere Christians; who by the lamps of the seven Churches of Asia, and not by the lamps of the Monasteries, had illuminated the Church Catholic during the three first centuries.”

FirstsHandsChristianFormThreeChurchNumbersChristianityGreaterCenturyCatholicSevenSincereFourthSuperstitionsAsiaLampsGodlinessAffinityChristian ChurchHeathenMonasteries
Book:Observations
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“Personally I would like to have pupils, a studio, pass on my love to them, work with them, without teaching them anything.. ..A convent, a monastery, a phalanstery of painting where one could train together.. ..but no programme, no instruction in painting.. ..drawing is still alright, it doesn't count, but painting - the way to learn is to look at the masters, above all at nature, and to watch other people painting.”

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Author:Paul Cezanne
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“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.”

PeopleWritingHumansSaidBookMightHuman BeingsAbilityMastersGeniusSaintSelfishEggsButterflyEaglesCaterpillarsMonasteries
Book:One Minute Wisdom
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“Mystics knew how to channel grace through prayer and they knew the power of that. They knew how to receive guidance through reflection and contemplation; they knew how to share the gift of illumination with each other. These are great gifts of life and profound grace that we are capable of providing for each other and the world. This is what it means to be a mystic without a monastery. You make a commitment to your own interior illumination and through that discover the "sacred" part of your "contract" and the true meaning of your highest potential.”

WorldMeanPrayerPowerGraceShareHighestCapableReflectionCommitmentSacredProfoundGuidanceContemplationContractsProvidingInteriorsIlluminationMysticGreat GiftsTrue MeaningMonasteriesGifts Of Life
Author:Caroline Myss
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“One of the most persistent fallacies about the Christian Church is that it kept learning alive during the Dark and Middle Ages. What the Church did was to keep learning alive in the monasteries, while preventing the spread of knowledge outside them... Even as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, nine-tenths of Christian Europe was illiterate.”

AgeChristianChurchDarkAliveAtheismMiddleCenturyLateEuropeSpreadPositive AtheismNinePersistentMiddle AgesNineteenth CenturyPreventingFallacyIlliterateChristian ChurchMonasteriesKeep Learning
Author:Margaret E. Knight
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“Christianity ... has produced the iniquities of the Inquisition, the egotism and celibacy of the monasteries, the fury of religious wars, the ferocity of the Hussite, of the Catholic, of the Puritan, of the Spaniard, of the Irish Orangeman and of the Irish Papist; it has divided families, alienated friends, lighted the torch of civil war, and borne the virgin and the greybeard to the burning pile, broken delicate limbs upon the wheel and wrung the souls and bodies of innocent creatures on the rack; all this it has done, and done in the name of God.”

WarSoulDoneBodyReligionNamesReligiousChristianityBrokenCreaturesCatholicInnocentBurningCivil WarWheelsDividedDelicateVirginsLimbsFuryEgotismTorchesPuritanCelibacyRacksInquisitionIniquityMonasteriesSoul And BodyFerocitySpaniardsReligious Wars
Author:Ouida
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“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.”

YearsMadeBookReligionDestructionPossessionCriminalsDestroyedCopiesBuriedBurnedOffenseEgyptMonkJarsBannedMonasteriesBanned Books
Book:The Gnostic Gospels
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“The Jesuits are a MILITARY organization, not a religious order. Their chief is a general of an army, not the mere father abbot of a monastery. And the aim of this organization is power - power in its most despotic exercise - absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms - and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses.”

MenWorldOrderFatherReligiousMilitaryExerciseOrganizationUniversalAbuseArmyAbsolutesAimMereEnormousChiefsDespotismAbsolute PowerMonasteriesSingle ManVolitionJesuit
Author:Napoleon Bonaparte
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“What frustrated me was the thought that with three thousand years of history someone in China, some monk in a monastery halfway up a mountain, must have developed a magic kata, a physical expression of formae. Or at least have got close enough to explain all those legendary swordsmen and their inexplicable desire to roost on the tops of bamboo trees.”

YearsEnoughDesireThreeMagicTreeExpressionThousandMountainChinaFrustratedThousand YearsMonkHalfwayLegendaryInexplicableMonasteriesBambooRoostSwordsman
Book:Broken Homes
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“Not only is the day waning, but the year. The low sun is fiery and yet cold behind the monastery ruin, and the Virginia creeper on the Cathedral wall has showered half its deep-red leaves down on the pavement. There has been rain this afternoon, and a wintry shudder goes among the little pools on the cracked, uneven flag-stones, and through the giant elm-trees as they shed a gust of tears.”

YearsLittlesHas BeensNatureBehindsHalfSunTreeTearsWallColdLowsRedRainStonesRuinsGiantsAfternoonPoolFlagsShedVirginiaCrackedCathedralsFieryPavementMonasteriesCreepersRed LeavesElm Trees
Book:The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Edwin Drood and Miscellaneous
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“It was a very aged, ghostly place; the church had been built many hundreds of years ago, and had once had a convent or monastery attached; for arches in ruins, remains of oriel windows, and fragments of blackened walls, were yet standing-, while other portions of the old building, which had crumbled away and fallen down, were mingled with the churchyard earth and overgrown with grass, as if they too claimed a burying-place and sought to mix their ashes with the dust of men.”

IfsMenYearsEarthChurchBuildingWallBuiltYears AgoStandingWindowRemainsDustRuinsGrassFallenPortionsAshesFragmentsSpookyArchesMonasteriesBuryingOld Buildings
Book:The Old Curiosity Shop: And Reprinted Pieces
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“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.”

MenWarOrderSimpleGood ThingsNuclearSuperiorsLogicalSubmitNuclear WarArithmeticCalculusMonasteriesMoralistBlackmailFriars
Book:His Master's Voice
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“Canoes, too, are unobtrusive; they don't storm the natural world or ride over it, but drift in upon it as a part of its own silence. As you either care about what the land is or not, so do you like or dislike quiet things--sailboats, or rainy green mornings in foreign places, or a grazing herd, or the ruins of old monasteries in the mountains. . . . Chances for being quiet nowadays are limited.”

WorldCareNaturalChanceSilenceMorningLandQuietMountainGreenStormRuinsOver ItDislikeNatural WorldHerdsRainyMonasteriesSailboatGrazingBeing QuietForeign Places
Book:Goodbye to a river: a narrative
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“He'd once heard a story about a monastery on the top of some mountain in Japan or somewhere. After a long trek in the cold to get there, the monks would offer to sell you a cup of coffee. You had a choice: There was a two-dollar cup - or a two-hundred- dollar cup. When pressed to explain the difference, the monks were reported to say, 'A hundred and ninety-eight dollars.'”

LongTwoStoriesChoicesDifferencesHeardColdOffersMountainHundredSellsDollarsEightCoffeeCupsJapanNinetyMonkCoffee CupMonasteriesNinety Eight
Author:Steve Perry
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