The principle of asceticism never was, nor ever can be, consistently pursued by any living creature. Let but one tenth part of the inhabitants of the earth pursue it consistently, and in a day's time they will have turned it into a Hell.
~ Jeremy Bentham

If a hermit lives in a state of ecstasy, his lack of comfort becomes the height of comfort. He must relinquish it.
~ Jean Cocteau

To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!
~ Denis Diderot

In every ascetic morality man worships a part of himself as God and for that he needs to diabolize the other part.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The ascetic makes a necessity of virtue.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The main motive for ''nonattachment'' is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work.
~ George Orwell