Quotes about Detachment

The poorest man in a religious community is not necessarily the one who has the fewest objects assigned to him for his use. Poverty is not merely a matter of not having things. It is an attitude which leads us to renounce some of the advantages which come from the use of things.

The beginning of love is truth, and before He will give us His love, God must cleanse our souls of the lies that are in them. And the most effective way of detaching us from ourselves is to make us detest our

I often see it in people who have attained what the monastic tradition terms "detachment," an ability to live at peace with the reality of whatever happens. Such people do not have a closed-off air, nor a boastful demeanor. In them, it is clear, their wounds have opened the way to compassion for others. And compassion is the strength and soul of a religion.

As the world is wearie of me so am I of it.

Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.

Hold everything loosely.

The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.

He no longer cared about anything (as before) but now he also cared about everything in principle; that is to say, it was all the same to him and he belonged to the world and there was nothing he could do about it.

Well, now you know me. You know I don't have close relationships with anybody any more - I don't know what to do with these things. I hold things in my hand like pieces of crap and don't know where to put it down.

It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.

The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God.