Asceticism Quote by Katherine Anne Porter

“In the ferment of our civil societies, from which the guardian angels seem to depart, we see many every moment sliding at the brink.…

— Anonymous

“One could not stand and watch very long without being philosophical, without beginning to deal in symbols and similes, and to hear the hog-squeal…

— Upton Sinclair

“Cynicism and defeated weariness have this in common: They both question the active goodness of God on our behalf.”

— Paul E. Miller

“Whoever approaches these Olympians with another religion in his heart, searching among them for moral elevation, even for sanctity, for disincarnate spirituality, for charity…

— Friedrich Nietzsche

In the isolation of his clear, cold intellect, the sceptic abides in a glacial and spectral universe. No glow from the affections lights up…

— Edwin Hubbel Chapin

“God. Father. Lover. For each shaken source of faith, I have hoarded a seismic sense of hurt--a sensation that led to spiritual starvation.”

— Amy Irvine

“We were quite naturally unhappy; feeling a definite need, unbearably keen at moments, which was never to be satisfied. But that was recognizable pain,…

— Virginia Woolf

“For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valour. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity…

— Carson McCullers

“In so speaking they saw further than the flesh. In their remorse and disgust it was not mere physical disillusionment that so crushed them.…

— Henri Barbusse

“Sometimes, if the two old women were not asleep, they heard him pacing slowly along the walks at a very advanced hour of the…

— Victor Hugo

“His thinking was a dusk of doubt and selfmistrust lit up at moments by the lightnings of intuition, but lightnings of so clear a…

— James Joyce

... being perpetually charmed by his familiar siren, that is, by his geometry, he neglected to eat and drink and took no care of…

— Plutarch