We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
A superficial freedom to wander aimlessly here or there, to taste this or that, to make a choice of distractions, is simply… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If we examine ourselves carefully we shall see most of us have an enormous amount of unfinished business...We have to be free… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“BUT as long as you pretend to live in pure autonomy, as your own master, without even a god to rule you,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The cause of liberty becomes a mockery if the price to be paid is the wholesale destruction of those who are to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“If these seeds would take root in my liberty, and if His will would grow from my freedom, I would become the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Once the question of grace and free will is reduced to a juridical matter, once witnesses line up with plaintiff or defendant… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love. — 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
“The peace the world pretends to desire is really no peace at all. To some men, peace merely means the liberty to… — 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
This is the crucifixion of Christ: in which He dies again and again in the individuals who were made to share the… — 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
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
The only true liberty is in the service of that which is beyond all limits, beyond all definitions, beyond all human appreciation:… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We know when we are following our vocation when our soul is set free from preoccupation with itself and is able to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To be ordinary is not a choice: It is the usual freedom of men without visions. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“In a state where “liberty” is based on the “rights” of each individual there can never be true justice. But in a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
And it is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or comfort our own minds, when… — 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
“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
