Self-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves. For no one can give up what he… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To worship our false selves is to worship nothing. And the worship of nothing is hell. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The world is a living and self-creating mystery of which I am myself a part, to which I am myself, my own… — 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
There is a subtle but inescapable connection between the "sacred" attitude and the acceptance of one's in most self. — 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
God Himself begins to live in me not only as my Creator but as my other and true self. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a person deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone… — 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
We cannot find Him unless we know we need Him. We forget this need when we take a self-sufficient pleasure in our… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“If we enter into ourselves, find our true self, and then pass beyond the inner "I", we sail forth into the immense… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
This is the greatest stumbling block in our spiritual discipline, which, in actuality, consists not in getting rid of the self but… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self YOU have wanted for me, only the self… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
What does it mean to know and experience my own “nothingness?” It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my… — 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
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness,… — 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
Our Christian destiny is, in fact, a great one: but we cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Place no hope in the feeling of assurance, in spiritual comfort. You may well have to get along without this. Place no… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“When the light of God's truth begins to find its way through the mists of illusion and self-deception with which we have… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“He who is controlled by objects Loses possession of his inner self: If he no longer values himself, How can he value… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For pride, which is the inordinate attribution of goods and values and glories to one's own contingent self, cannot exist where there… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
God must be allowed the right to speak unpredictably… We must find him in our enemy, or we may lose him even… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The world as pure object is something that is not there. It is not a reality outside us for which we exist…It… — 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
In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with the mind and lips, but in a certain sense with one's whole… — 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
The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may mean? I myself… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In general, it can be said that no contemplative life is possible without ascetic self-discipline. One must learn to survive without the… — 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
