Defilement Quotes

A folkish state must therefore begin by raising marriage from the level of a continuous defilement of the race, and give it the consecration of an institution which is called upon to produce images of the Lord and not monstrosities halfway between man and ape.

Adolf Hitler

Religious, Men, Race

Adolf Hitler (1971). “Mein Kampf”, Mariner Books

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Purity is the power to contemplate defilement.

Simone Weil

Power, Purity, Contemplating

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.122, Psychology Press

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Drink has shed more blood, hung more crepe, sold more homes, plunged more people into bankruptcy, armed more villains, slain more children, snapped more wedding rings, defiled more innocence, blinded more eyes, dethroned more reason, wrecked more manhood, dishonored more womanhood, broken more hearts, blasted more lives, driven more to suicide and dug more graves than any other evil that has cursed the world.

Evangeline Booth

Suicide, Children, Home

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But when Lust By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, But most by lewd and lavish arts of sin, Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion, Imbodies and imbrutes, till she quite lose The divine property of her first being.

John Milton

Art, Soul, Lust

John Milton, “Comus”

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By defilement of mind, beings are defiled; by purification of mind, beings are purified.

Gautama Buddha

Buddhist, Mind, Purification

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The principal cause of suffering is craving. Once craving is eliminated, much suffering will be eliminated. Still more suffering will be eliminated once ignorance is eliminated. Both craving and ignorance are equally powerful defilements that cause suffering.

Henepola Gunaratana

Powerful, Ignorance, Suffering

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (2010). “Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory Guide to Deeper States of Meditation”, p.33, ReadHowYouWant.com

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Purity is the ability to contemplate defilement.

Simone Weil

Purity, Ability, Contemplating

Simone Weil (2013). “The Notebooks of Simone Weil”, p.290, Routledge

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What is the mark of a Christian? That he be purified of all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit in the Blood of Christ, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God and the love of Christ, and that he have no blemish nor spot nor any such thing; that he be holy and blameless and so eat the Body of Christ and drink His Blood; for 'he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgement to himself.' What is the mark of those who eat the Bread and drink the Cup of Christ? That they keep in perpetual remembrance Him who died for us and rose again.

Saint Basil

Christian, Blood, Rose

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You yourself must make an effort. Buddhas are only show the way. The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of defilements.

Gautama Buddha

Buddhist, Thoughtful, Effort

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If you are tossed about by doubts, full of strong thoughtless passions, and yearning only for that which is detrimental, your thirst will grow stronger and stronger, unquenched, and your pain will grow with your defilements.

Gautama Buddha

Strong, Buddhist, Pain

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Mary properly bore the name of Virgin, and possessed to the full all the attributes of purity. She was a virgin in both body and soul, and kept all the powers of her soul and her bodily senses far above any defilement. This she did authoritatively, steadfastly, decisively and altogether inviolably at all times, as a closed gate preserves the treasure within, and a sealed book keeps hidden from sight what is written inside. The Scriptures say of her, 'This is the sealed book' (cf. Rev. 5:1-6:1; Dan. 12:4) and 'this gate shall be shut, and no man shall enter by it' (Ezek. 44:2).

Gregory Palamas

Christian, Book, Men

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In short: if one has nothing of value to say, only that which is impure defilement, avoid them. They are masters of the dark. Of no use.

Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Love, Buddhism, Dark

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Gluttony and satiety in food produce defiled lust, while free association with women enflames the fire of lusts ... At the time of struggle with defilement, punish your thoughts with lack of nourishment, so that you will think not of defilements, but of hunger, and reject the invitation to go visiting.

Nilus of Sinai

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

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Where does rain come from? It comes from all the dirty water that evaporates from the earth, like urine and the water you throw out after washing your feet. Isn't it wonderful how the sky can take that dirty water and change it into pure, clean water? Your mind can do the same with your defilements if you let it.

Ajahn Chah

Rain, Dirty, Sky

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For never doubt that those souls who live least by the flesh feel themselves most defiled by its defilement.

Katharine Fullerton Gerould

Soul, Doubt, Flesh

Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1916). “Vain Oblations”

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It is harmful to remember previous sins in detail. For if they bring you sorrow, they will estrange you from hope, but if they are remembered without sorrow, they will introduce the previous defilement. If you want to bring to God an uncondemned confession, then don't remember your sins in detail, but manfully endure the suffering that is coming because of them.

Marcus Eremita

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

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Realization is wonderful, but you have to expand it until there's not a single defilement left in the mind and the mind is completely open and spacious. Even in that condition, you still use the relative mind. You use them both.

Tenzin Palmo

Mind, Use, Realization

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A very weighty argument is this namely, that neither does the light which descends from thence, chiefly upon the world , mix itself with anything, nor admit of dirtiness or pollution, but remains entirely, and in all things that are, free from defilement, admixture, and suffering.

Saint Augustine

Light, Suffering, World

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Why since I am myself subject to birth, ageing, disease, death, sorrows and defilement, do I seek after what is also subject to these things? Suppose, being myself subject these things, seeking danger in them, I were to seek the unborn, unageing, und.

Gautama Buddha

Sorrow, Age, Disease

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Regarding this Dhamma, it is not something that we can simply talk about or take another's word for it. We need to develop meditation so that the understanding arises clearly within oneself. It is not the case that merely by listening to another's explanation our defilements will disappear. When we gain some understanding we need to chew on it again so that we see it for ourselves with certainty: paccattam.

Ajahn Chah

Meditation, Understanding, Listening

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A mind unruffled by the vagaries of fortune, from sorrow freed, from defilements cleansed, from fear liberated - this is the greatest blessing.

Gautama Buddha

Buddhist, Blessing, Mind

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Every moment of mindfulness means the gradual destruction of latent defilements. It is somewhat like cutting away a piece of wood with a small axe, every stroke helping to get rid of the unwanted fragments of wood.

Mahasi Sayadaw

Mean, Cutting, Mindfulness

Vidagama Maitreya, Mahasi Sayadaw, Susan Elbaum Jootla, Nyanaponika Thera, Ria Kloppenborg (2013). “Collected Wheel Publications Volume XX: Numbers 296–311”, p.76, Buddhist Publication Society

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There is to me about this place a smell of rot, the smell of rot that ripe fruit makes. Nowhere, ever, have the hideous mechanics of birth and copulation and death -those monstrous upheavals of life that the Greeks call miasma, defilement- been so brutal or been painted up to look so pretty; have so many people put so much faith in lies and mutability and death death death.

Donna Tartt

Lying, Smell, People

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