--- title: "2 Concentration camp Quotes By Thomas Merton" description: "2 Concentration camp quotes by Thomas Merton. Plus more from Thomas Merton and more Concentration camp sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/911/thomas-merton-231_camps_by-my-monastic-life-and-vows-i-am-saying_1875217.jpg" --- > [By my monastic life and vows I am saying no to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political trials, the judicial murders, the racial injustices, the economic tyrannies, and the whole socioeconomic apparatus which seems geared for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/by-my-monastic-life-and-vows-i-am-saying-no-to-all-the-concentration/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/911/thomas-merton-231_camps_by-my-monastic-life-and-vows-i-am-saying_1875217.jpg) > [“I hear You saying to me: "I will give you what you desire. I will lead you into solitude. I will lead you by the way that you cannot possibly understand, because I want it to be the quickest way.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-hear-you-saying-to-me-i-will-give-you-what-you-desire-i-will-lead/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ae/thomas-merton-231_concentration-camp_i-hear-you-saying-to-me-i-will-give-you_3212583.jpg) ## Other authors on Concentration camp - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b024/author-viktor-e-frankl-93688.jpg) Viktor E. Frankl 18 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/concentration-camp/viktor-e-frankl/) ## 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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/let-no-one-hope-to-find-in-contemplation-an-escape-from-conflict-from/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/if-nothing-that-can-be-seen-can-either-be-god-or-represent-him-to-us/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/it-is-almost-impossible-to-overestimate-the-value-of-true-humility/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/we-are-not-perfectly-free-until-we-live-in-pure-hope-for-when-our/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-desire-to-kill-is-like-the-desire-to-attack-another-with-an-ingot/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/to-enter-into-the-realm-of-contemplation-one-must-in-a-certain-sense/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-mission-of-christian-humility-in-social-life-is-not-merely-to/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/peace-cannot-be-built-on-exclusivism-absolutism-and-intolerance-but/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/things-that-are-good-are-good-and-if-one-is-responding-to-that/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [Love winter when the plant says nothing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/love-winter-when-the-plant-says-nothing/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-logic-of-worldly-success-rests-on-a-fallacy-the-strange-error/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-wisdom-of-the-flesh-is-a-judgement-that-the-ordinary-ends-of-our/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-will-no-longer-wound-myself-with-the-thoughts-and-questions-that/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/if-you-write-for-god-you-will-reach-many-men-and-bring-them-joy-if/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [“Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and fruitful silence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/contemplation-means-rest-suspension-of-activity-withdrawal-into-the/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/concentration-camp/thomas-merton/#itemlist", "name": "2 Concentration camp Quotes By Thomas Merton", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "By my monastic life and vows I am saying no to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political trials, the judicial murders, the racial injustices, the economic tyrannies, and the whole socioeconomic apparatus which seems geared for nothing but global destruction in spite of all its fair words in favor of peace.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Thomas Merton" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/by-my-monastic-life-and-vows-i-am-saying-no-to-all-the-concentration/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/911/thomas-merton-231_camps_by-my-monastic-life-and-vows-i-am-saying_1875217.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/911/thomas-merton-231_camps_by-my-monastic-life-and-vows-i-am-saying_1875217.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/911/thomas-merton-231_camps_by-my-monastic-life-and-vows-i-am-saying_1875217.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“By my monastic life and vows I am saying no to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the…” — Thomas Merton", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I hear You saying to me: \"I will give you what you desire. I will lead you into solitude. I will lead you by the way that you cannot possibly understand, because I want it to be the quickest way. \"Therefore all the things around you will be armed against you, to deny you, to hurt you, to give you pain, and therefore to reduce you to solitude. \"Because of their enmity, you will soon be left alone. They will cast you out and forsake you and reject you and you will be alone. \"Everything that touches you shall burn you, and you will draw your hand away in pain, until you have withdrawn yourself from all things. Then you will be all alone. \"Everything that can be desired will sear you, and brand you with a cautery, and you will fly from it in pain, to be alone. Every created joy will only come to you as pain, and you will die to all joy and be left alone. All the good things that other people love and desire and seek will come to you, but only as murderers to cut you off from the world and its occupations. \"You will be praised, and it will be like burning at the stake. You will be loved, and it will murder your heart and drive you into the desert. \"You will have gifts, and they will break you with their burden. You will have pleasures of prayer, and they will sicken you and you will fly from them. \"And when you have been praised a little and loved a little I will take away all your gifts and all your love and all your praise and you will be utterly forgotten and abandoned and you will be nothing, a dead thing, a rejection. And in that day you shall being to possess the solitude you have so long desired. And your solitude will bear immense fruit in the souls of men you will never see on earth. \"Do not ask when it will be or where it will be or how it will be: On a mountain or in a prison, in a desert or in a concentration camp or in a hospital or at Gethsemani. It does not matter. So do not ask me, because I am not going to tell you. You will not know until you are in it. \"But you shall taste the true solitude of my anguish and my poverty and I shall lead you into the high places of my joy and you shall die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you for this end and brought you from Prades to Bermuda to St. Antonin to Oakham to London to Cambridge to Rome to New York to Columbia to Corpus Christi to St. Bonaventure to the Cistercian Abbey of the poor men who labor in Gethsemani: \"That you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ of the burnt men. ”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Thomas Merton" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-hear-you-saying-to-me-i-will-give-you-what-you-desire-i-will-lead/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ae/thomas-merton-231_concentration-camp_i-hear-you-saying-to-me-i-will-give-you_3212583.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ae/thomas-merton-231_concentration-camp_i-hear-you-saying-to-me-i-will-give-you_3212583.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ae/thomas-merton-231_concentration-camp_i-hear-you-saying-to-me-i-will-give-you_3212583.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I hear You saying to me: \"I will give you what you desire. 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