Definition of Ascetic

Ascetic

Extremely rigid in self-denial and devotions; austere; severe.

In the early church, one who devoted himself to a solitary and contemplative life, characterized by devotion, extreme self-denial, and self-mortification; a hermit; a recluse; hence, one who practices extreme rigor and self-denial in religious things.

Related Definitions:

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Ascetic Quotations

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.
Bertrand Russell

A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion.
Marshall McLuhan

I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.
Gustave Flaubert

The student who deceives himself into thinking that he is giving his life like an ascetic in the spirit of sacrifice for art, is the victim of a deplorable species of egotism.
Alma Gluck

No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane.
Robert M. Parker, Jr.

More Ascetic Quotations

Ascetic Translations

ascetic in German is asketisch
ascetic in Swedish is asket

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