{"quotes":[{"text":"That's what lay behind the feud under way in the Republic: a battle between different noble family factions in a fight for power. Serving this side or the other was of no interest to Mathias. But the consequences of a Venice under the Pope's direct control weren't at all to his liking. His beloved books would be burned by ignorant, avid priests. Men like Malachia would win.It was the same old struggle. The same fight Gheorg had chosen, the same fight that might take him to Wittenberg. But he wouldn't clear the way for Alexander VI. With what little strength he possessed, even though he was nothing more than a pawn of a chessboard, that extended farther then he could see, Mathias would help those in power smash what had all the makings of a major plot, one designed to overturn the government in power in La Serenissima. And these thoughts allowed the monk to find the first answer to the many question with which he still felt burdened.He and the Borgias did NOT share the same Church.","author":"Riccardo Bruni","tags":["battle","battles-within","books","borgias","church","italy","monk","pawn","pawn-or-player","venice"],"id":10630,"author_id":"Riccardo+Bruni"},{"text":"It sounds to me, dear, as if your satirist is a bit like a monk. They both take a rather dim view of the world, and both try to do something abou.","author":"Tony Hendra","tags":["benedictine","catholic","catholicism","christian","christianity","contemptus-mundi","detachment","latin","monk","religion","religious","world"],"id":77247,"author_id":"Tony+Hendra"},{"text":"If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.","author":"Thich Nhat Hanh","tags":["buddha","buddism","darma","monk","peace","plum-village","sangha","vietnam"],"id":78003,"author_id":"Thich+Nhat+Hanh"},{"text":"Awesome, Monk have a brother from the film Monk 2000, however... What makes you think that film and reality are different?","author":"Deyth Banger","tags":["awesome","brother","different","film","monk"],"id":82881,"author_id":"Deyth+Banger"},{"text":"I once renounced my home in Calcutta, and roamed around the villages of Bengal as a monk. But after I attained the Absolute Divine state of Unification with the Universe, I realized that the purpose of life is not renunciation of anything, but the realization of the purpose itself.","author":"Abhijit Naskar","tags":["advaita","brainy","god","inspirational","monk","monkhood","nondual-philosophy","nonduality","pearls-of-wisdom","purpose-of-life","renounce","renunciation","sage","self-realization","thinker","transcendence","wise-sayings"],"id":96161,"author_id":"Abhijit+Naskar"},{"text":"What?' He cried, darting at him a look of fury: 'Dare you still implore the Eternal's mercy? Would you feign penitence, and again act an Hypocrite's part? Villain, resign your hopes of pardon. Thus I secure my prey!'As He said this, darting his talons into the Monk's shaven crown, He sprang with him from the rock. The Caves and mountains rang with Ambrosio's shrieks. The Daemon continued to soar aloft, till reaching a dreadful height, He released the sufferer. Headlong fell the Monk through the airy waste; The sharp point of a rock received him; and He rolled from precipice to precipice, till bruised and mangled He rested on the river's banks. Life still existed in his miserable frame: He attempted in vain to raise himself; His broken and dislocated limbs refused to perform their office, nor was He able to quit the spot where He had first fallen. The Sun now rose above the horizon; Its scorching beams darted full upon the head of the expiring Sinner. Myriads of insects were called forth by the warmth; They drank the blood which trickled from Ambrosio's wounds; He had no power to drive them from him, and they fastened upon his sores, darted their stings into his body, covered him with their multitudes, and inflicted on him tortures the most exquisite and insupportable. The Eagles of the rock tore his flesh piecemeal, and dug out his eyeballs with their crooked beaks. A burning thirst tormented him; He heard the river's murmur as it rolled beside him, but strove in vain to drag himself towards the sound. Blind, maimed, helpless, and despairing, venting his rage in blasphemy and curses, execrating his existence, yet dreading the arrival of death destined to yield him up to greater torments, six miserable days did the Villain languish. On the Seventh a violent storm arose: The winds in fury rent up rocks and forests: The sky was now black with clouds, now sheeted with fire: The rain fell in torrents; It swelled the stream; The waves overflowed their banks; They reached the spot where Ambrosio lay, and when they abated carried with them into the river the Corse of the despairing Monk.","author":"Matthew Lewis","tags":["devil","gruesome","hell","horror","hypocrisy","insects","monk","punishment","religion","the-sublime"],"id":105022,"author_id":"Matthew+Lewis"},{"text":"In the void, there is no distinction of east and west.'Gwen blinked slightly at that. 'I know all of those words, and yet when strung together like that I have no idea what they mean.","author":"Jim Butcher","tags":["fantasy","funny","monk","proverb","steampunk"],"id":132376,"author_id":"Jim+Butcher"},{"text":"My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk.","author":"John Keats","tags":["i am","monk","monastery "],"id":141476,"author_id":"John+Keats"},{"text":"Monk... Not monk but Andrian Monk makes mistakes if he makes then and we can.","author":"Deyth Banger","tags":["can","makes","mistakes","monk"],"id":144197,"author_id":"Deyth+Banger"},{"text":"She looked at his face and saw a monk and a detective, both beautiful and bizarre.","author":"Lawren Leo","tags":["beautiful","beauty","bizarre","detective","face","monk","perspective-on-flaws"],"id":162159,"author_id":"Lawren+Leo"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":27,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}