Top 309 Monk Quotes & Sayings

I'm just a monk, I'm like a recluse.

I’m a basketball player, not a monk.

If for just the time of a finger-snap a monk produces a thought of loving-kindness, develops it, gives attention to it, such a one is rightly called a monk. Not in vain does he meditate. He acts in accordance with the master's teaching, he follows his advice. How much more so if he cultivates it.

A habit does not a monk make.

I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever I go. So there it is, with all its beautiful purposelessness, and it has become very familiar to me though I do not know "what it is." Or even if it is an "it." Not to be foolish and multiply words, I'll say simply that it seems to me that Zen is the very atmosphere of the Gospels, and the Gospels are bursting with it. It is the proper climate for any monk, no matter what kind of monk he may be. If I could not breathe Zen I would probably die of spiritual asphyxiation.

I play a Monk song, it's like you get possessed. And then you have to break that spell. You have to remind yourself that you are an individual, or that you aren't Thelonious Monk.

I should have been a Trappist monk.

This is for you,' he (the Alchemist) said, holding one of the parts (of gold) out to the monk. 'It's for your generosity to the pilgrims.' 'But this payment goes well beyond my generosity,' the monk responded. 'Don't say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less the next time.

I am a simple Buddhist monk - no more, no less.

First inclination is to become a monk and leave the situation.

I want to live with a monk... and the Rolling Stones.

Trane was the perfect saxophonist for Monk's music because of the space that Monk always used. Trane could fill up all that space with all them chords and sounds he was playing then.

I was spoiled by Monk's music because it was so good, so complete.

Hey, I always say: if you want a quiet life, become a monk.

A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself.

The Devil was sick - the Devil a monk would be, The Devil was well the devil a monk was he

If I had not been a monk, I would have become an engineer.

Thelonius Monk was not exactly 'the guy next door'.

So, at the age of nine, I became a monk, and from then on I was there practicing that kind of nonviolence.

One of the books that has guided me in the last ten years of my life to help me to be that leader is the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh's Being Peace. He's a Vietnamese monk. He was nominated for a Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King.

I'm like a monk with a taste for hookers.

During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk

At first I didn't understand what [Thelonious Monk] was doing, but I went back again, and what I can say about Monk is that I heard ancient Africa in his music. When he played, it was like a ballet. He captured the sound of the universe. Monk could take a triad, a simple chord, and make it sound dissonant. I'm sure that element he had in his piano was part of the two years he spent traveling with his mother in gospel music in the tent shows.

Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something about punching Monk out in front of his face - and I never did - then somebody should have just come and got me and taken me to the madhouse, because Monk could have just picked my little ass up and thrown me through a wall.

A monk is not forbidden to marry, but if he takes a wife she becomes a monk with the same powers and privileges and occupies the same social position as her husband.

In my efforts to better my stamina and career, I find myself becoming more monk-like. And I'm not talking about the 'holy, praying, create awesome Trappist beer'-type monk. I'm talking about the 'go to bed early, no drinking, no talking, and no having any fun'-type monk.

I am a simple Buddhist monk.

Monk's music is often defined as enigmatic, eccentric and humorous - as if it had little to do with the pain he may have endured to create his art. But I believe Monk routinely shared his history with his audience, no matter how unpalatable that history was, and it is for that very reason that his music connects with people around the globe.

I love Thelonious Monk's song "Just a Gigolo." It's probably a minor song for him, but whenever I hear a recording of him playing it, I'm mesmerized, because Monk clearly loved pop music. He took it very seriously and made an amazing thing out of it.

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

Amma Theodora said: A certain monk, afflicted by many sorrows, said to himself, "Leave this place." With these words he began to put his sandals on his feet, and suddenly he saw the devil in the form of a man sitting in the corner of his cell. The devil was also putting on his sandals. He said to the monk, "Are you leaving here because of me? Well then, wherever you go, I will be there before you."

A voluminous, prosaick, and drivelling Monk.

When you're married, it's one person. That's one more than a monk. It's not that different.

My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk.

I felt like poisoning a monk.

Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.

I certainly haven't lived the life of a Buddhist monk.

I'm like the Shaolin monk, the counselor in the clubhouse.

I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less.

I would not be happy if I had not become a monk.

I'm not a god, I'm not a genius, I'm not a monk, I make non-design for non-consumers. I don't know if I do exist.

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers.

'Monk' planted the seed that a procedural could have character and be quirky and have comedy.

The first jazz pianist I heard was Thelonious Monk. My father was listening to an album of his called 'Monk's Dream' almost every day from the time I was born.

[Thelonious] Monk is a subject in itself. I mean, most piano players in most big bands sit down and they play with the band, you know. But Monk would just sit there like this. And all of a sudden there'd be a pause from all the trumpets and everything and Monk would go 'plink!' like that. And everybody would go 'Yeah!

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.

I am simply just one monk. That's all.

If you have an ancestor who is a Benedictine monk, we would rather not know it.

The Monk competition did open some doors. And I was thankful for that.

I love Monk's song, 'Just a Gigolo.' It's probably a minor song for him, but whenever I hear a recording of him playing it, I'm mesmerized because Monk clearly loved pop music. He took it very seriously and made an amazing thing out of it.

A monk's extraordinary patience can be a hindrance to desperate decision-making.

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.

Im a Tibetan monk, not a vegetarian.

At Length the Fox turnes Monk.

I'm not an acting monk or anything. I'm not, like, the most well-adjusted actor.

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.

The life of an artist is like the life of a monk, a lewd monk if you like, very Rabelaisian. It is an ordination.

High on a rocky promontory sat an Electric Monk on a bored horse.

Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in every way--through the senses, theoretically, technically. I would talk to Monk about musical problems, and he would sit at the piano and show me the answers just by playing them. I could watch him play and find out the things I wanted to know. Also, I could see a lot of things that I didn't know about at all.

Conclusion: better to be a thinking monk than a postmodern thinker.