In the serene confines of monasteries, monks devote their lives to spiritual pursuit, often encapsulating profound wisdom within simple yet profound statements. These monk quotes encapsulate centuries of contemplation, distilled into nuggets of insight that resonate with seekers of truth across cultures and generations. Whether Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, or from other traditions, these quotes offer timeless guidance on life’s journey, inviting us to reflect on the deeper meaning of existence.
Steeped in a tradition of introspection and mindfulness, monks have long been revered as custodians of profound truths. Their words, crafted through a life of discipline and devotion, echo with the clarity born of inner peace and enlightenment. As we explore these monk quotes, we embark on a journey through the corridors of spiritual understanding, drawing inspiration from the wisdom of those who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of higher consciousness. Join us as we delve into the profound insights of monks from diverse traditions, and discover the timeless truths that illuminate the path toward spiritual awakening.
Now, let’s delve into the rich tapestry of monk quotes below, each a gem of wisdom waiting to be uncovered, cherished, and shared.
I certainly haven’t lived the life of a Buddhist monk. Burton Cummings
Being on Broadway is the modern equivalent of being a monk. I sleep a lot, eat a lot, and rest a lot. Hugh Jackman
My own schooldays convince me that I would not send a child of mine to be educated by a grinning monk any more than I would send him to a mullah in Iran. Harry Enfield
You can’t live like a monk if you have two five-year-old twins. That ain’t happening. Just the opposite, actually. Scott Ellis
If you want to be great in what you’re doing, you really need to limit yourself, so I consider my life as the life of a monk. Oleksandr Usyk
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. Benny Green
When I present the Charlie Parker book, I do a call and response that works quite well. With the Thelonious Monk book, I play the music and work with kids in a group to create a color wheel and show how the wheel can be mapped on a 12-tone chromatic scale. Chris Raschka
I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less. Dalai Lama
My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk. John Keats
I can’t explain something I saw on holiday on Holy Island when I was about nine years old, but do you know what, it could have been my PE teacher dressed in a monk’s habit. I have no idea. I’m not a ghost person… it doesn’t mean there aren’t unexplained things; I just don’t think they’re ghosts. Tom Goodman-Hill
So, at the age of nine, I became a monk, and from then on I was there practicing that kind of nonviolence. Satish Kumar
When a monk takes a vow of silence, is he still allowed to post messages on the Internet? Chances are God won’t find out. Being ancient, God probably can’t work computers. He holds the mouse gingerly, like it’s made of fine china. Charlie Brooker
I had the experience of a monk copying documents, applying myself assiduously to my work. And I thought whatever happened, happened – this is just what I do in my life. Alan Furst
I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me. Mose Allison
I really want to help people because it seems to be there’s this mental block and people think in order to lose weight you have to give up things in your life that are good – and that just isn’t true. They feel like they’ve got to turn themselves into a monk. Gregg Wallace
For me, Charles Xavier is a monk. He’s like a selfless, egoless almost sexless force for the betterment of humanity and mortality. James McAvoy
Thelonious Sphere Monk: there’s not a more perfect name to fit his compositions than that name. Matthew Shipp
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. Lzzy Hale
Malik Monk is special. Special. John Calipari
The more original something is, the more of a threat it seems until the people catch up with it. That happened with Thelonious Monk. It happened with anybody who is really original. Steve Lacy
On its 2015 list, the Fish and Wildlife Service included the ‘ea, or hawksbill turtle, as well as the green turtle, Ridley sea turtle, leatherback turtle and loggerhead turtle. Four mammals are considered endangered: the Hawaiian hoary bat; the kohola, or humpback whale; the sperm whale; and the endemic Hawaiian monk seal. Susanna Moore
He was seriously thinking of becoming a monk. He thought he had to be celibate to maintain the purity of his instrument, but my instrument needed tuning, and we had to split. Mimi Rogers
I did take comfort in the vespers and compline. I might have become a monk if I hadn’t come out. John Cameron Mitchell
I think I would like to be a monk. I really considered Catholicism a few years ago, but there were some things that I just couldn’t reconcile. Rich Mullins
His name, even, is part of the marketing scheme, I mean, Thelonious Sphere Monk – how can you think of a better name to fit his style of playing? Matthew Shipp
When I heard Monk in person in 1955, he was playing with a quartet in a small club. The place was full of musicians, but there was no public at all. Steve Lacy
The history with wide receivers, I follow it pretty close. I look at Art Monk, I look at Lynn Swann, I look at Michael Irvin, and it’s becoming very, very difficult to judge the skill of a wide receiver in today’s game. But what else can you judge it on but the numbers? The numbers, they do tell a story. Cris Carter
If you hear Thelonious Monk play a run that goes from the top of the piano, OK, he has opened up the Grand Canyon with that. He’s the river that’s carved this entire space that we call the Grand Canyon. He does that with one run. He lets you know, like, what the possibility of the sound of the piano can do. Jason Moran
I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man. Chick Corea
A monk’s extraordinary patience can be a hindrance to desperate decision-making. Harsha Bhogle
But when I lived as a monk, solitude is often spoken of as a strength. And so the first thing I’d recommend is finding one thing that you can do every single day that brings you joy. It may be reading a book you love. It may be looking at a beautiful piece of art. Jay Shetty
I’m always a great student of writers’ work habits. Balzac sat at his desk dressed in a monk’s robe, and he always had to have a rotten apple on his desk. The smell of the apple inspired him somehow. Frank McCourt
Jazz is very much a part of my life. I work with the Thelonious Monk Institute and do the artwork for their program every year. Billy Dee Williams
I like to read psychologist’s books. ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,’ that’s one of my favorites. Those kinds of books. Ricky Rubio
I’ve always been really athletic, which really helped, because when I first started doing the training for Bulletproof Monk, it required so much strength that if I didn’t have a base I don’t really know what I would have done. Jaime King
I spent my childhood clad in 1970s hand-me-downs, primarily from male cousins, which mainly consisted of a selection of beige, brown and orange dungarees. That, combined with a perfectly round pudding-bowl haircut, made me look, on a good day, like a cross between Ann Widdecombe, one of the Flower Pot Men, and a monk. Miranda Hart
When I was a child, my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll end up as the Pope.’ Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. Pablo Picasso
Compared to what comics say today, I’m a monk, but in those days, it was unheard of to make fun of people like I did. Of course, they exaggerated how outrageous I really was. Don Rickles
When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly. Steve Lacy
I have tons of jazz records: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis. I could go on and on. Ted King
In my own spiritual journey, I became a swami on the Hindu path of Bhakti. In the Hindu tradition, a swami is a monk who forgoes regular family life for the purpose of making the whole world his family and channels his full energy into spiritual practice, devotion to God and service to humanity. Radhanath Swami
I left Chicago many years ago to move to California. You can’t help but live a healthy lifestyle here if you want to fit in. I find myself eating chicken and salad and chicken and salad and salad and chicken, like a monk. James Belushi
I am a simple Buddhist monk – no more, no less. Dalai Lama
When it’s all said and done, jazz with a capital J is where I’m coming from. Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk – that’s what I really studied when I was a teenager and what really fueled my passion. Jose James
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. Jay Shetty
I always thought if I was born 2000 years earlier, I would be a monk, probably carving a monastery or some giant pantheon buildings. Jenova Chen
I’m like the Shaolin monk, the counselor in the clubhouse. Torii Hunter
In Buddhist culture, offering food to the monk symbolizes the action of goodness, and if you have no opportunity to support the practice of spirituality, then you are somehow left in the realm of darkness. Thich Nhat Hanh
People will be able to survive, of course, without honeycreepers and monk seals. But if the wolf spider is in trouble, we are in trouble, too. Susanna Moore
I’m no Buddhist monk, and I can’t say I’m in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I’ve written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn’t want or need, not all I did. Pico Iyer
First and foremost, the monk should own nothing in this world, but he should have as his possessions solitude of the body, modesty of bearing, a modulated tone of voice, and a well-ordered manner of speech. He should be without anxiety as to his food and drink, and should eat in silence. Saint Basil
I’m like a monk with a taste for hookers. Moby
There is no kind of music I don’t listen to. Everything good is interesting. I am as happy with a Bach fugue as I am with a record by Thelonious Monk. Maira Kalman
If you do come across ‘Sanctus’ in a bookshop, please see past the cross on the cover and the sinister outline of a monk and just read the first page and make your own mind up. If it’s still not for you, then that’s fine; just put it back and walk away. Simon Toyne
I’ll try anything, but the pig testicles in Taiwan were a little much. Eh, it wasn’t half bad. There was this one dish I had there, the translation is, ‘The Monk Jumps over the Fence.’ It’s a fish dish with all these spices. It was beautiful, man – it was poetry. It had a whole story. Steven Adams
When I became a novice monk, I lived in a temple where the atmosphere was quite like in a family. The abbot is like a father and other monks are like your big brothers, your small, younger brothers. It is a kind of family. Thich Nhat Hanh
Without sounding too pretentious, I feel my job is almost like becoming a monk or a nun – it’s a calling. Felicity Jones
In a lot of ways, their journeys are opposite of each other’s: Aang was a peace-loving monk, through and through, whereas Korra is a dyed in the wool fighter. Bryan Konietzko
At heart I am a librarian, a bird-watcher, a transcendentalist, a gardener, a spinster, a monk. Juliana Hatfield
At the age of eighty, the Dalai Lama has begun to discuss a range of prospects for the future disposition of his soul. Traditionally, after he dies, a search party of senior monks would set out to locate his new incarnation, who is most often a boy toddler, who goes on to be trained as a monk and a leader. Evan Osnos
Creativity itself doesn’t care at all about results – the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless. Elizabeth Gilbert
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. Jason Moran
Every few generations there are people who come along that change the way we look at the world, for musical enthusiasts Monk is one of these individuals. John Conyers
I like vampires, tuberculosis, anything to do with blood. Then I read a biography of Rasputin and found out he’d had this daughter who had become a famous lion tamer and been billed as the daughter of the mad monk who was able to hypnotize animals with her eyes. It gave me a vision. Kathryn Harrison
I was fat and ugly and never ‘wanted to hook up – for a gay guy that’s unheard of. I was like a monk or a priest. Perez Hilton
I try to do other characters that are different from Monk, obviously, because I’d like to be remembered for more than just that. Tony Shalhoub
When I became a monk, it didn’t feel like I was giving up that much. I actually felt like I had made the best decision, because anyone who hadn’t focused on building themselves up was the one losing out. Jay Shetty
If you can get a twelve year-old kid to go listen to Thelonius Monk, what more do you want? Do you want a big pile of cash, too? That’s a home run for me. Jimmy Chamberlin
‘Monk’ planted the seed that a procedural could have character and be quirky and have comedy. James Roday
No one can live without relationship. You may withdraw into the mountains, become a monk, a sannyasi, wander off into the desert by yourself, but you are related. You cannot escape from that absolute fact. You cannot exist in isolation. Jiddu Krishnamurti
I think any spiritual experience that’s worthwhile is not about ego and it will humble you in some way. And also, a Zen monk once said to me, ‘If you’re not laughing, then you’re not getting it.’ David O. Russell
I believe, from reading biographies, that the great musicians have also been great cooks: Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach. I think I’ve worked out why this is – unsociable hours, plus general creativity. Jamie Cullum
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. Jason Moran
I’m not an acting monk or anything. I’m not, like, the most well-adjusted actor. Adam Driver
Rock & roll fan that I am, Thelonious Monk is probably my favorite musical artist. Robert Christgau
I wanted to be a monk at some time in my life, or a priest, so there was a kind of reflex quite early on not to be attached to anything that might be taken away. Stephen Hough
I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp… I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn’t necessarily the blues. Eric Clapton
I love Meredith Monk, and with Instagram, I get a chance to see if she has a cat, and what’s she reading. Devendra Banhart
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. Glenn Ligon
Thelonious Monk was one of the musicians I most connected with early on. I’m a huge Betty Carter fan, and the way that Abbey Lincoln and Shirley Horn grew immensely from the time they were young is so inspirational. Cecile McLorin Salvant
To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people. Thich Nhat Hanh
My capacity as a monk was to passionately believe utter nonsense, and when you’re an actor you have to do the same thing. Also, Christianity used to have a lot to do with self-loathing and an acceptance of criticism and things like that which is terribly important for actors. Tom Baker
I loved working on ‘Murphy Brown,’ and I loved working on ‘Monk.’ Nell Scovell
A habit does not a monk make. Francois Rabelais
When I came out of the conservatory, the first thing I did was to go see Thelonious Monk. Cecil Taylor
I should have been a Trappist monk. David Blunkett
I got into music when I was a little boy. My dad was always into jazz. I got my education from him. The first time I listened to jazz, he gave me a Thelonious Monk record. It was so different from anything I had ever heard. It took me a while to understand it, and I liked that. I liked the fact that it wasn’t immediately palatable. Ted King
But I really want to be an artist, so therefore I have to live a little bit like a monk. John Lone
Monk’s gone, and House is gone. Maybe I can pick up where they left off. Eric McCormack
Miles Davis and Felonious Monk, they’re both great artists who enhance things. John Gourley
As I tell my children, the first thing is always health. Get sleep, don’t party, don’t do drugs or drink. If your body is right, then you will be right, and if your body is wrong, you will be wrong. Live like a Buddhist monk! Colm Wilkinson
There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness. I can understand the concept of being a monk for a while. Tom Hanks
I was spoiled by Monk’s music because it was so good, so complete. Steve Lacy
I’m just a monk, I’m like a recluse. Y’lan Noel
My father was the church organist; the village curate was my mother’s brother, a former monk from the order of Pijar, a very well-educated and ascetic man who loved nothing but solitude. Wladyslaw Reymont
Being an actor is like being a monk: you have got to be dedicated. David Jason
I was filming in Roscrea in Co Tipperary. I had great fun watching monks in the monastery there making bread. They even offered me a job as their main baker. One of them said I would make a good monk, but I told him there was a slight problem because I was married. Paul Hollywood
I’m trying to use people like Meredith Monk and Philip Glass and Terry Riley as the backing tracks for new pop songs. It’s really hard trying to use the format and write a pop song on top of avant-garde music, so we’ll see. It could be cool, or it could totally flop. Autre Ne Veut
My role models weren’t holding steering wheels and mashing gears on Sunday. They wore burgundy and gold with names like Art Monk and Darrell Green. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Where we’ve been wise is that, while ‘Monk’ may have been a risk at the beginning, we’ve built its success and built on its success. We looked at what was working and why it was working. Bonnie Hammer