He was perhaps noticing that the dishonest boy had grown into a dishonest man.

Monastic religion is like a varnish, it only serves to bring out the true colour, and is powerless to alter it by more than a shade.

Those who have lived in religious communities know that human nature is the same there as in the world--that a man who is not straightforward may grow in monastic zeal day by day, but he will never grow straightforward.

On the other hand, if a man be a good man, religion will make him better, but it must not be a religion that runs to words.
Leon sat with folded hands and lowered eyes.

He was a sort of amateur monk, and, like all amateurs, he was apt to exaggerate outward signs.