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Full Idea
When asceticism was carried out of the monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order.
Gist of Idea
When asceticism emerged from the monasteries, it helped to drive the modern economy
Source
Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], 5)
Book Ref
Weber,Max: 'Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism' [Routledge 2001], p.123
A Reaction
Since Max Weber's time I should think this is less and less true. If you hunt for ascetics in the modern world, they are probably dropped out, and pursuing green politics. Industrialists are obsessed with property and wine.