People have no idea what one saint can do: for sanctity is stronger than the whole of hell. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For the ones who are called saints by human opinion on earth may very well be devils, and their light may very… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
What do you want to want to be, anyway?" "I don't know; I guess what I want to be is a good… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Saints are what they are not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“It was because the saints were absorbed in God that they were truly capable of seeing and appreciating created things and it… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“A man becomes a saint not by conviction that he is better than sinners but by the realization that he is one… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The Hindus are not looking for us to send them men who will build schools and hospitals, although those things are good… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
As long as I continue to take myself seriously, how can I consider myself a saint? How can I consider myself a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
They were in the world and not of it--not because they were saints, but in a different way: because they were artists.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is true to say that for me sanctity consists in being myself and for you sanctity consists of being yourself and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Very well, then: why are you attached to any one book, or to the words and ways of one saint when he… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I just remember their kindness and goodness to me, and their peacefulness and their utter simplicity. They inspired real reverence, and I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The eyes of the saint make all beauty holy and the hands of the saint consecrate everything they touch to the glory… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Hurry ruins saints as well as artists. They want quick success, and they are in such a hurry to get it that… — 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
