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
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves. — 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
“Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real...and the hidden, inner person who seems to… — 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
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
“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
Each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“EVERY one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to… — 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
First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Everyone of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self..We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all… — 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
“We are what we love. If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in him and we… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“There are many other escapes from the empirical, external self, which might seem to be, but are not, contemplation. For instance, the… — 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
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
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
The secret of my full identity is hidden in Him. He alone can make me who I am, or rather who I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.' If he persists in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“True solitude is the home of the person, false solitude the refuge of the individualist.” — 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
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
“Contemplation, on the contrary, is the experiential grasp of reality as subjective, not so much “mine” (which would signify “belonging to the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Memory is corrupted and ruined by a crowd of memories. If I am going to have a true memory, there are a… — 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
