People have no idea what one saint can do: for sanctity is stronger than the whole of hell. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
People are in a hurry to magnify themselves by imitating what is popular- and too lazy to think of anything better. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Humble people can do great things with uncommon perfection because they are no longer concerned about their own interests and their own… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The truth that many people never understand until it is too late is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I cannot make the universe obey me. I cannot make other people conform to my own whims and fancies. I cannot make… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
That is God's call to us - simply to be people who are content to live close to him and to renew… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Curiously, the most serious religious people, or the most concerned scholars, those who constantly read the Bible as a matter of professional… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. The "sanity" of modern man… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Creation was given to people as a clean window through which the light of God could shine into people's souls. Sun and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Since no man ever can, or could, live by himself and for himself alone, the destinies of thousands of other people were… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In the natural order no matter what ideals may be theoretically possible, most people more or less live for themselves and for… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To some men peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
After all, what is your personal identity? It is what you really are, your real self. None of us is what he… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By "they" I mean the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can… — 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
Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I stand among you as one who offers a small message of hope. . . there are always people who dare to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The danger of education, I have found, is that it so easily confuses means with ends. Worse than that, it quite easily… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If a writer is so cautious that he never writes anything that cannot be criticized, he will never be able to write… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. If modern people were a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There are crimes which no one would commit as an individual which he willingly and bravely commits when acting in the name… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I am willing to admit that some people might live there for years, or even a lifetime, so protected that they never… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. God manifests Himself… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, now I realize what we all are . If… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying ourselves in the mirror of… — 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
![“It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, now I realize what we all are . If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which…” quote by Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/615/thomas-merton-231_big-problem_it-is-a-glorious-destiny-to-be-a-member_1795511.jpg)
