Monk Quotes - Page 4

• On sober reflection, I find few reasons for publishing my Italian version of an obscure, neo-Gothic French version of a seventeenth century Latin edition of a work written in Latin by a German Monk toward the end of the fourteenth century...First of all, what style should I employ?

  Umberto Eco

  Latin, Italian, Reflection

  Umberto Eco (2014). “The Name of the Rose”, p.4, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• One of the the loveliest lines I have ever read comes from Brother Roger, the Prior of the Protestant monks of Taize, France: 'Assured of your salvation by the unique grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.' It is still difficult for me to read these words without tears filling my eyes. It is wonderful.

  Brennan Manning

  Brother, Jesus, Eye

  Brennan Manning (2008). “The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out”, p.94, Multnomah

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• One may desire a spurious respect and precedence among one's fellow monks, and the veneration of outsiders. "Both monks and laity should think it was my doing. They should accept my authority in all matters great or small." This is a fool's way of thinking. His self-seeking and conceit just increase.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Humility, Pride

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• 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

  Light, Skulls, Bishops

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• I am hopelessly divided between the dark and the good, the rebel and the saint, the sex maniac and the monk, the poet and the priest, the demagogue and the populist. Pen to paper, I put it all down - I'm out on a limb here, so watch my back.

  Billy Idol

  Sex, Heart, Dark

  "Billy Idol: The Story of My Drug-Fueled Recording of 'Dancing with Myself'" by Billy Idol, www.esquire.com. October 3, 2014.

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• I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple on Jusan Pond surrounded only by nature.

  Kim Ki-duk

  Joy, Sorrow, Four Seasons

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• A monk is holy and great until he starts teaching you the real Dharma

  Tsem Tulku

  Real, Teaching, Holy

  FaceBook post by H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche from Jun 11, 2013

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• How does one stay mindful? Where feelings are known as they arise, known as they persist, known as they pass away. Thoughts are known as they arise, known as they persist, known as they pass away. Perceptions are known they arise, known as they persist, known as they pass away. This is how a monk stays awake.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Feelings, Perception

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• A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.

  Umberto Eco

  Book, Humility, Temptation

  Umberto Eco (1995). “Name of the Rose”, p.195, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Royce cast a harsh and anxious look at the prince. “What?” Alric asked. “I thought we discussed the importance of keeping a low profile.” “Oh, please.” The prince waved a hand at the thief. “I don’t think it will get me killed if this monk knows I’m the king. Look at him. I’ve seen drowned rats more formidable.

  Michael J. Sullivan

  Kings, Thinking, Hands

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• If the world is crazy, maybe it needs a few sane people in the middle of it. Why do monks lock themselves up in monasteries? What's the good of solving your personal suffering if the solution keeps you isolated from everyone else's suffering?

  Tim Ward

  Crazy, People, Suffering

  Tim Ward (2013). “What the Buddha Never Taught: A 'Behind the Robes" Account of Life in a Thai Forest Monastery”, p.47, Changemakers Books

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• A few days ago Tan Casipo said to me, 'Some people come here with so much dust in their eyes it's unbearable to talk to them.' What does that say about the monkhood? He can't tolerate people with 'dust in their eyes.' All that these monks have developed here is a safe little self-centred world which they call holy because villagers bow down to them. Living in a forest and wearing a robe doesn't make you better than anybody else.

  Tim Ward

  Eye, Self, Dust

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• Most of the methods for measuring the lapse of time have, I believe, been the contrivance of monks and religious recluses, who, finding time hang heavy on their hands, were at some pains to see how they got rid of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Religious, Time, Pain

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.69

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• At heart I am a librarian, a bird-watcher, a transcendentalist, a gardener, a spinster, a monk.

  Juliana Hatfield

  Heart, Bird, Librarian

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• A true military officer is in one particular like a true monk. Not with more self-abnegation will the latter keep his vows of monastic obedience than the former his vows of allegiance to martial duty.

  Herman Melville

  Military, Self, Vow

  Herman Melville (2016). “Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories”, p.190, Penguin

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• Monks, nuns, long-term spinsters and bachelors and permanent homosexuals are all, in a reproductive sense, aberrant. Society has bred them, but they have failed to return the compliment.

  Desmond Morris

  Long, Return, Compliment

  desmond morris (1967). “tha naked ape”

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• A monk asks:Is there anything more miraculous than the wonders of nature?The master answers:Yes, your awareness of the wonders of nature.

  Angelus Silesius

  Spiritual, Answers, Wonder

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• Use gentle methods to get whatever good you can from priests and monks who are slaves, as well as from merchants and captives. Resort to severe measures only in extreme cases, for fear lest the hardship they are already enduring in their state of captivity, joined to the strictness you might want to exercise in virtue of your authority, drive them to despair. . . . It is not light they need, but strength, and strength permeates through the external balm of words and good example.

  Vincent de Paul

  Wisdom, Exercise, Light

  Saint Vincent de Paul, Pierre Coste (1985). “Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653”

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• During the last 2,500 years in Buddhist monasteries, a system of seven practices of reconciliation has evolved. Although these techniques were formulated to settle disputes within the circle of monks, i think they might also be of use in our households and in our society.The first practice is Face-to-Face-Sitting.

  Nhat Hanh

  Buddhist, Thinking, Years

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Being Peace”, p.88, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• A Dominican monk, Father Henri Didon, used it as a watchword for his pupils in sports at Arcueil College in Paris. Baron Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, made it the Olympic Games ideal adopted at the Antwerp Games in 1920. I never mentioned winning to my players. I mentioned constantly that all I wanted them to do was the best they could. If they're good enough, the score will be to their liking; if they're not, it won't be but that's nothing to hang their head about. Sometimes the other fellow is just better than you are.

  John Wooden

  Sports, Father, Winning

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• Only Zorbas become Buddhas - and Buddha was never a monk, A monk is one who has never been a Zorba and has become enchanted by the words of Buddhas. A monk is an imitator, he is false, pseudo. He imitates Buddhas. He may be Christian, he may be Buddhist, he may be a Hindu - that doesn't make much difference - but he imitates Buddhas.

  Rajneesh

  Christian, Buddhist, Differences

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• When a monk goes away from the world, he goes fighting with it. it is not a relaxed going. His whole being is pulled towards the world. He struggles against it. He becomes divided. Half of his being is for the world and half has become greedy for the other. He is torn apart. A monk is basically a schizophrenic, a split person, divided into the lower and the higher. And the lower goes on pulling him, and the lower becomes more and more attractive the more it is repressed. And because he has not lived the lower, he cannot get into the higher.

  Rajneesh

  Struggle, Fighting, Experience

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• 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!

  Rajneesh

  Morning, Laughter, Night

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• I want to have a lasting experience with God. Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I loose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears. I want to be with God all the time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what I want to learn is how to leave in this world and enjoy its delights, but also elevate myself to God.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Life, Giving Up, Religion

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• When a monk is an arahant, with his fermentations ended - one who has reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, totally destroyed the fetter of becoming, and is released through right gnosis - the thought doesn't occur to him that 'There is someone better than me,' or 'There is someone equal to me,' or 'There is someone worse than me.'

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Gnosis, Goal

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