Beautiful quotes on fasting
“In the evening I came home and read about the Messina earthquake, and how the relief ships arrived, and the wretched survivors crowded down to the water’s edge and tore each other like wild beasts in their rage of hunger. The paper set forth, in horrified language, that some of them had been seventy-two hours […]
“In the evening I came home and read about the Messina earthquake, and how the relief ships arrived, and the wretched survivors crowded down to the water’s edge and tore each other like wild beasts in their rage of hunger. The paper set forth, in horrified language, that some of them had been seventy-two hours without food. I, as I read, had also been seventy-two hours without food; and the difference was simply that they thought they were starving.
“I have not only found good health, but perfect health; I have found a new state of being, a potentiality of life; a sense of lightness and cleanness and joyfulness, such as I did not know could exist in the human body.” Upton Sinclair, The Fasting Cure.
“Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity.”
Augustine
“Fasting kills the desire of the self and the appetite of greed, and from it comes purity of the heart, purification of the limbs, cultivation of the inner and the outer being, thankfulness for blessings, charity to the poor, increase of humble supplication, humility, weeping and most of the ways of seeking refuge in Allah.”
Ja’far al-Sadiq, The Lantern of the Path, Fasting, Translated by: Fadhlallah Haeri. Ansariyan Publications.
“Prescribed for you is the Fast, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may deserve God’s protection (against the temptations of your carnal soul) and attain piety.”
Qur’an, Al-Baqara 2:183, Ali Ünal.
“Fasting is the key which unlocks the Nature’s storehouse of Energy.. Fasting rewards you with increased Energy. Each time you fast, you will make your mind stronger, and more positive. you will eliminate fear and worry… Fasting helps you to a higher life. Fasting elevates the soul, the mind, and body… By fasting you can create the person you have always longed to be. That is, if you demand only the best life can offer… When your body is cleansed by fasting and you are living a natural health life, you will discover that you feel wonderful all the time. This is because Nature intended man to be a happy, well-balanced person, free of fears, of frustrations, stresses and strains.”
Paul C. Bragg, The Miracle of Fasting.
“The experience of knowing the power of God that comes through the fasting. Fasting and prayer have been a gateway through which God has done supernatural things.
Bill Bright, The Power of Prayer and Fasting.
Fasting is, without any doubt, the most effective biological method of treatment. It is the operation without surgery.”
Otto Buchinger, Das Heilfasten.
“We were with the Prophet while we were young and had no wealth whatever. So Allah’s Apostle said, “O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry…and whoever is not able to marry, should fast, as fasting diminishes his sexual power.”
Sahih Bukhari 7:62:4
“The goal of fasting is inner unity. This means hearing, but not with the ear; hearing, but not with the understanding; it is hearing with the spirit, with your whole being. The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another, but the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence, it demands the emptiness of the faculties, and when the faculties are empty, then your whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind. Fasting of the heart empties the faculties, frees you from limitations and from preoccupations.”
Confucius quoted in The Way of Chuang
“I can prove to anybody on his own body there can exist one natural remedy, i.e. fasting and fruit-diet.. Fasting is the master key to mental and spiritual unfoldment and evolution.”
Arnold Ehret, Rational Fasting.
“When I began to think about the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
On trifles, that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
After three days fasting,
I had forgotten gain and success.
After five days
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had forgotten my body
With all its limbs.”
Thomas Merton The Wood Carver, in The Way of Chuang Tzu