Thomas Merton Quotes About Silence

Quotes about: Silence

• In Silence God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.

  Thomas Merton

  Silence, Objects, Cease

• In a world of noise, confusion and conflict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline and peace. In such places love can blossom.

  Thomas Merton

  Discipline, Confusion, Silence

• The world of men has forgotten the joys of silence, the peace of solitude, which is necessary, to some extent, for the fullness of human living. Man cannot be happy for long unless he is in contact with the springs of spiritual life which are hidden in the depths of his own soul. If man is exiled constantly from his own home, locked out of his spiritual solitude, he ceases to be a true person.

  Thomas Merton

  Happy, Spiritual, Peace

• There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. This mysterious unity and integrity is wisdom, the mother of us all, "natura naturans." There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fountain of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness, and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being.

  Thomas Merton

  Mother, Nature, Integrity

• For language to have meaning, there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language. Perhaps it is love and respect for language which imposes silence upon him. For the mercy of God is not heard in words unless it is heard, both before and after the words are spoken, in silence.

  Thomas Merton

  Hate, Mercy Of God, Silence

  Thomas Merton (1976). “The Power and Meaning of Love”

• The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by learning to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen) we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of Love for which there can be no explanations.... May we all grow in grace and peace, and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.

  Thomas Merton

  Simple, Reality, Silence

• But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Silence, Solitude

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.373, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. My whole silence is full of prayer. The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.

  Thomas Merton

  Prayer, Silence, World

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.106, Macmillan

• The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness. But it does not matter much because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Sadness, Reality

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, New Directions Publishing

• If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. For religion goes beyond words and actions, and attains to the ultimate Truth only in silence and Love.

  Thomas Merton

  Religious, Silence, And Love

  Thomas Merton, Robert Inchausti (2007). “Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing”, p.56, Shambhala Publications

• The speech of God is silence. His Word is solitude.

  Thomas Merton

  Silence, Solitude, Speech

  Thomas Merton (1996). “Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk & Writer”, Harper San Francisco

• Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Silence, Sound

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.134, Shambhala Publications

• When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you. It tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your mind is silent, then the forest suddenly becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God.

  Thomas Merton

  Real, Imagination, Silence

  Thomas Merton (1979). “The Sign of Jonas”, Mariner Books

• It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.

  Thomas Merton

  Brother, Silence, Solitude

• Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to enable the deeper voice of our own self to be heard at least occasionally.

  Thomas Merton

  Inspirational, Yoga, Voice

• If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness. Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence. Since God cannot be imagined, anything our imagination tells us about Him is ultimately a lie and therefore we cannot know Him as He really is unless we pass beyond everything that can be imagined and enter into an obscurity without images and without the likeness of any created thing.

  Thomas Merton

  Lying, Imagination, Silence

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.131, New Directions Publishing

• The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child may have imagination, originality, a simple and individual response to reality, and even a tendency to moments of thoughtful silence and absorption. All these tendencies, however, are soon destroyed by the dominant culture. The child becomes a yelling, brash, false little monster, brandishing a toy gun or dressed up like some character he has seen on television.

  Thomas Merton

  Children, Character, Reality

• To be alone by being part of the universe-fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you do becomes a unity and a prayer. Unity within and without.

  Thomas Merton

  Prayer, Silence, Unity

  Thomas Merton (2009). “A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3: 1952-1960”, p.47, Harper Collins

• I suppose what makes me most glad is that we all recognize each other in this metaphysical space of silence and happening, and get some sense, for a moment, that we are full of paradise without knowing it.

  Thomas Merton

  Knowing, Space, Silence

• Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.

  Thomas Merton

  Heart, Fire, Light

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.89, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness, unification, self-discovery. Negative silence blurs and confuses our identity, and we lapse into daydreams or diffuse anxieties. Positive silence pulls us together and makes us realize who we are, who we might be, and the distance between these two.

  Thomas Merton

  Distance, Loss, Discovery

  Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.45, Macmillan

• Are they moved by a sense of human need for silence, for reflection, for inner seeking? So they want to get away from the noise and tension of modern life, at least for a little while, in order to relax their minds and wills and seek a blessed healing sense of inner unity, reconciliation, integration?

  Thomas Merton

  Blessed, Healing, Reflection

  Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.44, Macmillan

• It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am, the more affection I have for them. It is pure affection, and filled with reverance for the solitude of others. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

  Thomas Merton

  Single, Brother, Silence

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.280, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• One opens the inner doors of one's heart to the infinite silences of the Spirit, out of whose abysses love wells up without fail and gives itself to all.

  Thomas Merton

  Heart, Doors, Giving

• Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

  Thomas Merton

  Relationship, Brother, Silence

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.280, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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