Joseph McCarthy
Politician
"American life, in large cities, is a perpetual assault on the senses and the nerves; it is out of asceticism, out of unworldliness, precisely, that we bear it."
Asceticism quotes
Asceticism
39 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Paul Rand
Graphic Designer
"I never did calligraphy... But handwriting is an entirely different kind of thing. It's part of the syndrome of modernism... It's part of that asceticism."
Karl Marx
Philosopher, Economist
"Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist tinge."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Theologian
"To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is, 'He leads the way, keep close to Him.'"
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Author
"It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another."
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Asceticism quotes (page 1 of 2)
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"Genuine asceticism for finding one's own soul and for the good of humanity is worthy of reverence."
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"If a hermit lives in a state of ecstasy, his lack of comfort becomes the height of comfort. He must relinquish it."
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"The ascetic makes a necessity of virtue."
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"Catholicism is not ritualism; it may in the future be fighting some sort of superstitious and idolatrous exaggeration of ritual. Catholicism is not asceticism; it has again and again in the past repressed fanatical and cruel exaggerations of asceticism. Catholicism is not mere mysticism; it is even now defending human reason against the mere mysticism of the Pragmatists."
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"Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!"
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"Asceticism may be a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted with too much ease."
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"Asceticism is the right way of thinking for those who have to extirpate their sensual drives because they are ravening beasts of prey. But only for those!"
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