Thomas Merton Quotes


Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real. Thomas Merton Pride 117
We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness. Thomas Merton Imagination 111
To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell. Thomas Merton People 91
Modern man believes he is fruitful and productive when his ego is aggressively affirmed, when he is visibly active, and when his action produces obvious results. Thomas Merton Ego 84
Attachment to spiritual things is.. just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else. Thomas Merton Attachment 83
Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity. Thomas Merton Act 83
A man who fails well is greater than one who succeeds badly. Thomas Merton Failure 82
Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life. Thomas Merton Death 80
If a man is to live he must be all alive body soul mind heart spirit. Thomas Merton Spirituality 79
Wheels of fire, cosmic, rich, full-bodied honest victories over desperation. Thomas Merton Cosmic 78
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony. Thomas Merton Happy 77
We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are. Thomas Merton Unity 76
Today the artist has inherited the combined functions of hermit pilgrim prophet priest shaman sorcerer soothsayer alchemist. Thomas Merton Artist 74
When ambition ends, happiness begins. Thomas Merton Happy 74
Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments. Thomas Merton Advertising 74
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. Thomas Merton Inspirational 71
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. Thomas Merton Love 69
Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it. Thomas Merton Deepening 68
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another Thomas Merton Kindness 67
We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God. Thomas Merton God 66
A daydream is an evasion. Thomas Merton Daydream 66
In this age of crowds in which I have determined to be a solitary, perhaps the greatest sin would be to lament the presence of people on the threshold of my solitude. Thomas Merton Age 63
By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet. Thomas Merton Nature 62
The tighter you squeeze, the less you have. Thomas Merton Squeeze 61
October is a fine and dangerous season in America...a wonderful time to begin anything at all. You go to college, and every course in the catalogue looks wonderful. Thomas Merton America 60
The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little. Thomas Merton Human 60
To desire Him to be merciful to us is to acknowledge Him as God. To seek His pity when we deserve no pity is to ask Him to be just with a justice so holy that it knows no evil and shows mercy to everyone who does not fly from Him in despair. Thomas Merton Jesus 59
You do not need to know precisely what is happening or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment and to embrace them with courage faith and hope. Thomas Merton Courage 59
The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin but those that offer us great evils masking as the greatest goods. Thomas Merton Sin 58
The least of learning is done in the classrooms. Thomas Merton 57
Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward. Thomas Merton Love 56
One of the most important-and most neglected-elements in the beginning of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendour that is all around us. Thomas Merton Reality 53
We do not want to be beginners at prayer. but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners all our life Thomas Merton Prayer 53
For each one of us there is only one thing necessary to fulfill our own destiny according to Gods will to be what God wants us to be. Thomas Merton Destiny 52
The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in error, this first step to truth is the discovery of my error. Thomas Merton Discover 52
Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ. Thomas Merton Peace 51
We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves. Thomas Merton Capacities 51
The least of the work of learning is done in the classroom. Thomas Merton Work 49
When you expect the world to end at any moment you know there is no need to hurry. You take your time you do your work well. Thomas Merton Apocalypse 49
We do not exist for ourselves... Thomas Merton Help 49
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. Thomas Merton Uncategorized 48
The only trouble is that in the spiritual life there are no tricks and no shortcuts. Those who imagine that they can discover spiritual gimmicks and put them to work for themselves usually ignore Gods will and his grace. Thomas Merton Meditation 46
What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous. Thomas Merton Able 45
Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. Thomas Merton Conscience 43
Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another. Thomas Merton alone 43
We cannot find Him unless we know we need Him. We forget this need when we take a selfsufficient pleasure in our own good works. The poor and helpless are the first to find Him Who came to seek and to save that which was lost. Thomas Merton Belief 43
We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen. Thomas Merton Failure 43
Reason is in fact the path to faith and faith takes over when reason can say no more. Thomas Merton Reason 42
The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order. Thomas Merton Personality 42
The cause of liberty becomes a mockery if the price to be paid is the wholesale destruction of those who are to enjoy liberty. Ghandi quoted in Merton p. 68 Thomas Merton Liberty 41

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Thomas Merton Quotes

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