Thomas Merton Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• Every man becomes the image of the God he adores. He whose worship is directed to a dead thing becomes dead. He who loves corruption rots. He who loves a shadow becomes, himself, a shadow. He who loves things that must perish lives in dread of their perishing.

  Thomas Merton

  Men, Shadow, Worship

  Thomas Merton (2002). “No Man Is an Island”, p.263, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  11 Copy quote

• The peace produced by grace is a spiritual stability too deep for violence — it is unshakeable

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Grace

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.129, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• The only thing to seek in contemplative prayer is God; and we seek Him successfully when we realize that we cannot find Him unless He shows Himself to us, and yet at the same time that He would not have inspired us to seek Him unless we had already found Him.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Prayer, Inspired

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.61, Macmillan

  23 Copy quote

• To some men peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means the freedom to rob others without interruption. To still others it means the leisure to devour the goods of the earth without being compelled to interrupt their pleasures to feed those whom their greed is starving. And to practically everybody peace simply means the absence of any physical violence that might cast a shadow over lives devoted to the satisfaction of their animal appetites for comfort and pleasure.

  Thomas Merton

  Mean, Men, Animal

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.122, New Directions Publishing

  25 Copy quote

• The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to be open. In order to be open we have to renounce ourselves, in a sense we have to die to our image of ourselves, our autonomy, our fixation upon our self-willed identity.

  Thomas Merton

  Self, Order, Identity

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.224, Image

  21 Copy quote

• When we are strong, we are always much greater than the things that happen to us.

  Thomas Merton

  Strength, Strong, Happens

  Thomas Merton (2002). “Seeds”

  11 Copy quote

• I came with the notion of perhaps saying something for monks and to monks of all religions because I am supposed to be a monk. ... My dear brothers, 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

  Brother, Unity, Imagine

  15 Copy quote

• If a writer is so cautious that he never writes anything that cannot be criticized, he will never be able to write anything that can be read. If you want to help other people you have got to make up your mind to write things that some men will condemn.

  Thomas Merton

  Freedom, Writing, Helping Others

  Thomas Merton, Robert Inchausti (2007). “Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing”, p.198, Shambhala Publications

  13 Copy quote

• Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.

  Thomas Merton

  Disappointment, Eye, Heart

  Thomas Merton (1990). “The School of Charity: The Letters Of Thomas Merton On Religious Renewal & Spiritual Direction”, p.292, Macmillan

  47 Copy quote

• There are crimes which no one would commit as an individual which he willingly and bravely commits when acting in the name of his society, because he has been (too easily) convinced that evil is entirely different when it is done 'for the common good.'...one might point to the way in which racial hatreds and even persecution are admitted by people who consider themselves, and perhaps in some sense are, kind, tolerant, civilized and even humane.

  Thomas Merton

  Names, People, Evil

  14 Copy quote

• I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. The "sanity" of modern man is about as useful to him as the huge bulk and muscles of the dinosaur. If he were a little less sane, a little more doubtful, a little more aware of his absurdities and contradictions, perhaps there might be a possibility of his survival.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, People, Survival

  "Raids on the Unspeakable".

  35 Copy quote

• If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted that you will wish that you were dead.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Money, Writing

  Thomas Merton, Robert Inchausti (2007). “Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing”, p.198, Shambhala Publications

  15 Copy quote

• I am against war, against violence, against violent revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences, for nonviolent but nevertheless radical changes. Change is needed, and violence will not really change anything: at most it will only transfer power from one set of bull-headed authorities to another.

  Thomas Merton

  Peace, War, Differences

  25 Copy quote

• The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the wind, and join in the general Dance.

  Thomas Merton

  Faith, Inspiration, Wind

  23 Copy quote

• It's a risky thing to pray and the danger is that our very prayers get between God and us. The great thing in prayer is not to pray, but to go directly to God. . . . The fact is, though, that if you descend into the depths of your own spirit and arrive somewhere near the center of what you are, you are confronted with the inescapable truth that, at the very root of your existence, you are in constant and immediate contact with the infinite power of God.

  Thomas Merton

  Prayer, Roots, Facts

  6 Copy quote

• Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Ambition, Way

  Thomas Merton, Lawrence Cunningham (1996). “A search for solitude: pursuing the monk's true life”, Harper San Francisco

  11 Copy quote

• Some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do and see and taste and experience much less than usual... And for a man who has let himself be drawn completely out of himself by his activity, nothing is more difficult than to sit still and rest, doing nothing at all. The very act of resting is the hardest and most courageous act he can perform.

  Thomas Merton

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Men

  23 Copy quote

• Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more.

  Thomas Merton

  Faith, Wisdom, Path

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Ascent to Truth”, p.39, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  24 Copy quote

• If you have love you will do all things well.

  Thomas Merton

  Love, Inspirational, Wells

  9 Copy quote

• A man searching for enlightenment is like a man sitting on an Ass in search of an Ass

  Thomas Merton

  Men, Enlightenment, Sitting

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism, and work slowly towards a world federation of peaceful nations. How will this be possible? Don't ask me. I don't know. But unless we develop a moral, spiritual, and political wisdom that is proportionate to our technological skill, our skill may end us.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Peace

  Thomas Merton (1995). “Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis”, p.102, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  19 Copy quote

• Contemplation is the loving sense of this life, this presence and this eternity.

  Thomas Merton

  Eternity, Contemplation, This Life

  Thomas Merton (1997). “Dancing In The Water Of Life Volume 5:1963-1965: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage”, HarperOne

  13 Copy quote

• When ambition ends, happiness begins.

  Thomas Merton

  Ambition, Ambitious, Ends

  12 Copy quote

• Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Light, Gods Will

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.30, Shambhala Publications

  5 Copy quote

Page 8 of 25

First

← Prev

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin