Thomas Merton Quotes - Page 16

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• None of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for this is only another subtle way of trying to put ourselves on the same plane as God — acting as if we had no needs, as if we were not creatures, not dependent on Him.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Prayer, Pride

  "The seven storey mountain".

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• Our whole life is a meditation of our last decision - the only decision that matters.

  Thomas Merton

  Meditation, Decision, Matter

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.105, Macmillan

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• Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one is getting something. The truth is doing us good. The truth of the sunshine, the truth of the rain, the truth of the fresh air, the truth of the wind in the trees, these are truths. And they are always accessible!

  Thomas Merton

  Rain, Sunshine, Air

  "Contemplation in a World of Action: Second Edition, Restored and Corrected".

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• 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

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• For now, oh my God, it is to You alone that I can talk, because nobody else will understand. I cannot bring any other man on this earth into the cloud where I dwell in Your light, that is, Your darkness, where I am lost and abashed. I cannot explain to any other man the anguish which is Your joy nor the loss which is the Possession of You, nor the distance from all things which is the arrival in You, nor the death which is the birth in You because I do not know anything about it myself and all I know is that I wish it were over - I wish it were begun.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Distance, Loss

  Thomas Merton (1974). “A Thomas Merton Reader”, Image

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• Humility sets us free to do what is really good, by showing us our illusions and withdrawing our will from what was only an apparent good.

  Thomas Merton

  Humility, Illusion, Withdrawing

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.73, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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• You cannot be a man of faith unless you know how to doubt.

  Thomas Merton

  Men, Doubt, Know How

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.105, New Directions Publishing

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• There is a logic of language and a logic of mathematics.

  Thomas Merton

  Logic, Language, Mathematics

  Thomas Merton (1995). “Run to the mountain: the story of a vocation”, Harpercollins

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• The evil in the world is all of our own making, and it proceeds entirely from our ruthless, senseless, wasteful, destructive, and suicidal neglect of our own being.

  Thomas Merton

  Suicidal, Evil, World

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.222, Image

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• Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast.

  Thomas Merton

  Christian, Joy, Ashes

  Thomas Merton (2010). “Seasons of Celebration”, p.100, Macmillan

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• ... but any fool knows that you don't need money to get enjoyment out of life.

  Thomas Merton

  Life, Needs, Fool

  Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.29, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I would call the attention of the reader to the difference between "reason" and "reasoning." Reason is a light, reasoning a process. Reason is a faculty, reasoning an exercise of that faculty. Reasoning proceeds from one truth to another by means of argumentation. This generally involves the whole mind in labor and complexity. But reason does not exist merely in order to engage in reasoning. The process is a means to an end. The true fulfillment of reason as a faculty is found when it can embrace the truth simply and without labor in the light of single intuition.

  Thomas Merton

  Mean, Exercise, Light

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Ascent to Truth”, p.213, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Our Christian destiny is, in fact, a great one: but we cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great. For our own idea of greatness is illusory, and if we pay too much attention to it we will be lured out of the peace and stability of the being God gave us, and seek to live in a myth we have created for ourselves. And when we are truly ourselves we lose most of the futile self-consciousness that keeps us constantly comparing ourselves with others in order to see how big we are.

  Thomas Merton

  Christian, Wisdom, Greatness

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.128, Shambhala Publications

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• The fruitfulness of our lives depends in large measure in our ability to doubt our own words and to question the value of our own work. The man who completely trusts his own estimate of himself is doomed to sterility.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Men, Doubt

  Thomas Merton (2002). “Seeds”

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• If we live with possibilities we are exiles from the present which is given us by God to be our own, homeless and displaced in a future or a past which are not ours because they are always beyond our reach. The present is our right place, and we can lay hands on whatever it offers us.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Past, Hands

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.231, Shambhala Publications

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• It is both dangerous and easy to hate man as he is because he is not what he ought to be. If we do not first respect what he is we will never suffer him to become what he ought to be: in our impatience we do away with him altogether.

  Thomas Merton

  Hate, Men, Suffering

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.142, Image

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• We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are travelling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light. But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Light, Dwelling

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• 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

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• My God, I pray better to you by breathing and walking than by talking, just as in choir I sing best when I am thinking about something else, or better still, praying.

  Thomas Merton

  Talking, Breathing, Praying

  "Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk & Writer".

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• No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Writing, Wind

  Thomas Merton (2015). “Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 7”, p.10, Liturgical Press

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• The artistic experience, at its highest, was actually a natural analogue of mystical experience. It produced a kind of intuitive of perception.

  Thomas Merton

  Mystical Experiences, Perception, Artistic

  Thomas Merton (1998). “The seven storey mountain”, Harcourt

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• What I wear is pants. What I do is live. How I pray is breathe.

  Thomas Merton

  Pants, Praying, Breathe

  "Dialogues with Silence: Prayers & Drawings".

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• Be still: There is no longer any need of comment. It was a lucky wind That blew away his halo with his cares, A lucky sea that drowned his reputation.

  Thomas Merton

  Wind, Sea, Lucky

  Thomas Merton (1974). “A Thomas Merton Reader”, Image

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• True happiness is not found in any other reward than that of being united with God. If I seek some other reward besides God Himself, I may get my reward but I cannot be happy.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, May, Rewards

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.56, Shambhala Publications

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• Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love.

  Thomas Merton

  Perfection, His Love, Unlimited

  Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.434, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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