It is not only our hatred of others that is dangerous but also and above all our hatred of ourselves: particularly that… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin, but those that offer us great evils masking as… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
...love triumphs, at least in this life, not by eliminating evil once for all, but by resisting and overcoming it anew every… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and seek… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The devil makes many disciples by preaching against sin. He convinces them that the great evil of sin, induces a crisis of… — 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
“In the use of force, one simplifies the situation by assuming that the evil to be overcome is clear-cut, definite, and irreversible.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The evil in the world is all of our own making, and it proceeds entirely from our ruthless, senseless, wasteful, destructive, and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Merely to resist evil with evil by hating those who hate us and seeking to destroy them, is actually no resistance at… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To desire Him to be merciful to us is to acknowledge Him as God. To seek His pity when we deserve no… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Everybody has an instinctive desire to do good things and avoid evil. But that desire is sterile as long as we have… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
