The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Here is an unspeakable secret: paradise is all around us and we do not understand. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
God, have mercy on me in the blindness in which I hope I am seeking You! — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
True happiness is found in unselfish Love, A love which increases in proportion as it is shared. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Love not only prefers the good of another to my own, but it does not even compare the two. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is by desiring to grow in love that we receive the Holy Spirit, and the thirst for more charity is the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To love blindly is to love selfishly, because the goal of such love is not the real advantage of the beloved but… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us — and He has given us… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Love, in fact, is the spiritual life; and without it, all other exercises of the spirit are emptied of content. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is not merely our own desire but the desire of Christ in His Spirit that drives us to grow in love.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The silence of the forest is my bride and the sweet dark warmth of the whole world is my love, and out… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Persons are not known by intellect alone, not by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The question of love is one that cannot be evaded. Whether or not you claim to be interested in it from the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If we wait for some people to become agreeable or attractive before we begin to love them, we will never begin. If… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“One who is content with what he has, and who accepts the fact that he inevitably misses very much in life, is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved. And… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“But give me the strength that waits upon You in silence and peace. Give me humility in which alone is rest, and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“For at sixteen I had imagined that Blake, like the other romantics, was glorifying passion, natural energy, for their own sake. Far… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Prayer does not blind us to the world, but it transforms our vision of the world, and makes us see it, all… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“It is only the infinite mercy and love of God that has prevented us from tearing ourselves to pieces and destroying His… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
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… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
“Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and fruitful silence… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
