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Men Quotes by Thomas Merton

80 Men quotes by Thomas Merton

All Men quotes Thomas Merton’s page

Thomas Merton reminds us that peace cannot grow from exclusivity or vague slogans. He says true fulfillment comes from living with body, soul, mind, heart, and spirit, not just chasing senses or applause. He also notes that power may help a few but often hurts many.

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And that is why the man who wants to see clearly, before he will believe, never starts on the journey.

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To be ordinary is not a choice: It is the usual freedom of men without visions.

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The only way to make a man worthy of love is by loving him.

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If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.

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No one is so wrong as the man who knows all the answers.

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

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Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake.

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How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city?

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Modern man believes he is fruitful and productive when his ego is aggressively affirmed, when he is visibly active, and when his…

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The only right way: to love and serve the man of the modern world, but not simply to succumb, with him, to…

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The Holy Spirit is the most perfect gift of the Father to men, and yet He is the one gift which the…

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The man who lives in division is living in death. He cannot find himself because he is lost; he has ceased to…

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No matter how ruined man and his world may seem to be, and no matter how terrible man's despair may become, as…

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We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are…

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One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is to mind your own business. Nothing is…

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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…

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Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs…

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As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one…

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The Lord did not create suffering. Pain and death came into the world with the fall of man. But after man had…

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Since no man ever can, or could, live by himself and for himself alone, the destinies of thousands of other people were…

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For power can guarantee the interests of some men but it can never foster the good of man. Power always protects the…

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Some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do…

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If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some…

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I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the…

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To some men peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means…

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The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with…

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First, the desert is the country of madness. Second, it is the refuge of the devil, thrown out into the "wilderness of…

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First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself…

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Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things. Even with the…

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The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can…

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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…

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It is not humility to insist on being someone that you are not. It is as much as saying that you know…

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A man who fails well is greater than one who succeeds badly.

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Every other man is a piece of myself, for I am a part and a member of mankind.

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Man was made for the highest activity, which is, in fact, his rest.

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

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While some men see ordinary happenings, others see divine light and guidance.

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The man of faith who has never experienced doubt is not a man of faith.

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Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God.

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The man who sweats under his mask, whose role makes him itch with discomfort, who hates the division in himself, is already…

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More by Thomas Merton

“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude…

If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must…

It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is…

We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human…

The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the…

To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a…

The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of…

Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in…

Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one…

Love winter when the plant says nothing.

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of…

“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of…

I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not…

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…

“Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and fruitful silence…