---
title: "30 Identity Quotes By Thomas Merton"
description: "30 Identity quotes by Thomas Merton. Plus more from Thomas Merton and more Identity sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/01b/thomas-merton-231_awareness_self-conquest-is-really-self-surrender-y_2243093.jpg"
---

> [Self-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves. For no one can give up what he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/self-conquest-is-really-self-surrender-yet-before-we-can-surrender/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/01b/thomas-merton-231_awareness_self-conquest-is-really-self-surrender-y_2243093.jpg)

> [“True solitude is the home of the person, false solitude the refuge of the individualist.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/true-solitude-is-the-home-of-the-person-false-solitude-the-refuge-of/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1de/thomas-merton-231_identity_true-solitude-is-the-home-of-the-person_3034212.jpg)

> [Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/our-vocation-is-not-simply-to-be-but-to-work-together-with-god-in-the/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/edb/thomas-merton-231_career_our-vocation-is-not-simply-to-be-but-to_1994178.jpg)

> [Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/every-one-of-us-is-shadowed-by-an-illusory-person-a-false-self-we-are/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/thomas-merton-231_cherish_every-one-of-us-is-shadowed-by-an-illuso_1280805.jpg)

> [We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/we-must-make-the-choices-that-enable-us-to-fulfill-the-deepest/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fc1/thomas-merton-231_choice_we-must-make-the-choices-that-enable-us_1423663.jpg)

> [For the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self YOU have wanted for me, only the self…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/for-the-sinful-self-is-not-my-real-self-it-is-not-the-self-you-have/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66d/thomas-merton-231_father_for-the-sinful-self-is-not-my-real-self_2429773.jpg)

> [Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/contemplation-is-not-and-cannot-be-a-function-of-this-external-self/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de0/thomas-merton-231_contemplation_contemplation-is-not-and-cannot-be-a-fun_872969.jpg)

> [The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-things-we-really-need-come-to-us-only-as-gifts-and-in-order-to/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d49/thomas-merton-231_autonomy_the-things-we-really-need-come-to-us-onl_2266545.jpg)

> [We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real...and the hidden, inner person who seems to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/we-have-the-choice-of-two-identities-the-external-mask-which-seems-to/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/776/thomas-merton-231_being-real_we-have-the-choice-of-two-identities-the_808674.jpg)

> [“Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/therefore-there-is-only-one-problem-on-which-all-my-existence-my/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/000/thomas-merton-231_god_therefore-there-is-only-one-problem-on-w_1348421.jpg)

> [The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-monk-in-hiding-himself-from-the-world-becomes-not-less-than/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d71/thomas-merton-231_hiding_the-monk-in-hiding-himself-from-the-worl_2286467.jpg)

> [“EVERY one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/every-one-of-us-is-shadowed-by-an-illusory-person-a-false-self-this/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d18/thomas-merton-231_cybersecurity_every-one-of-us-is-shadowed-by-an-illuso_289581.jpg)

> [For pride, which is the inordinate attribution of goods and values and glories to one's own contingent self, cannot exist where there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/for-pride-which-is-the-inordinate-attribution-of-goods-and-values-and/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9f9/thomas-merton-231_attribution_for-pride-which-is-the-inordinate-attrib_1409953.jpg)

> [What does it mean to know and experience my own “nothingness?” It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/what-does-it-mean-to-know-and-experience-my-own-nothingness-it-is-not/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/762/thomas-merton-231_disgusting_what-does-it-mean-to-know-and-experience_1003705.jpg)

> [After all, what is your personal identity? It is what you really are, your real self. None of us is what he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/after-all-what-is-your-personal-identity-it-is-what-you-really-are/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/794/thomas-merton-231_concealed_after-all-what-is-your-personal-identity_602683.jpg)

> [“Everyone of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self..We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/everyone-of-us-is-shadowed-by-an-illusory-person-a-false-self-we-are/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/687/thomas-merton-231_contemplation_everyone-of-us-is-shadowed-by-an-illusor_588474.jpg)

> [Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/silence-has-many-dimensions-it-can-be-a-regression-and-an-escape-a/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df5/thomas-merton-231_anxiety_silence-has-many-dimensions-it-can-be-a_1962928.jpg)

> [First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/first-of-all-although-men-have-a-common-destiny-each-individual-also/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55e/thomas-merton-231_analysis_first-of-all-although-men-have-a-common_1858722.jpg)

> [Memory is corrupted and ruined by a crowd of memories. If I am going to have a true memory, there are a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/memory-is-corrupted-and-ruined-by-a-crowd-of-memories-if-i-am-going/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fbb/thomas-merton-231_alive_memory-is-corrupted-and-ruined-by-a-crow_3151222.jpg)

> [“Contemplation, on the contrary, is the experiential grasp of reality as subjective, not so much “mine” (which would signify “belonging to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/contemplation-on-the-contrary-is-the-experiential-grasp-of-reality-as/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a5/thomas-merton-231_contemplation_contemplation-on-the-contrary-is-the-exp_2915938.jpg)

> [“There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/there-is-an-irreducible-opposition-between-the-deep-transcendent-self/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f8a/thomas-merton-231_first-person_there-is-an-irreducible-opposition-betwe_1804257.jpg)

> [“There are many other escapes from the empirical, external self, which might seem to be, but are not, contemplation. For instance, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/there-are-many-other-escapes-from-the-empirical-external-self-which/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2f4/thomas-merton-231_identity_there-are-many-other-escapes-from-the-em_127521.jpg)

> [Each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/each-particular-being-in-its-individuality-its-concrete-nature-and/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3eb/thomas-merton-231_art_each-particular-being-in-its-individuali_1021038.jpg)

> [“He who is controlled by objects Loses possession of his inner self: If he no longer values himself, How can he value…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/he-who-is-controlled-by-objects-loses-possession-of-his-inner-self-if/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c2/thomas-merton-231_identity_he-who-is-controlled-by-objects-loses-po_885227.jpg)

> [To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/to-say-that-i-am-made-in-the-image-of-god-is-to-say-that-love-is-the/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/79e/thomas-merton-231_character_to-say-that-i-am-made-in-the-image-of-go_1080511.jpg)

> [As long as I continue to take myself seriously, how can I consider myself a saint? How can I consider myself a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/as-long-as-i-continue-to-take-myself-seriously-how-can-i-consider/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/434/thomas-merton-231_bother_as-long-as-i-continue-to-take-myself-ser_2912078.jpg)

> [In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.' If he persists in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/in-the-last-analysis-the-individual-person-is-responsible-for-living-2/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c15/thomas-merton-231_analysis_in-the-last-analysis-the-individual-pers_2248603.jpg)

> [The secret of my full identity is hidden in Him. He alone can make me who I am, or rather who I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-secret-of-my-full-identity-is-hidden-in-him-he-alone-can-make-me/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/59b/thomas-merton-231_desire_the-secret-of-my-full-identity-is-hidden_2301611.jpg)

> [The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-true-inner-self-must-be-drawn-up-like-a-jewel-from-the-bottom-of/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efa/thomas-merton-231_bottom_the-true-inner-self-must-be-drawn-up-lik_1284689.jpg)

> [“We are what we love. If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in him and we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/we-are-what-we-love-if-we-love-god-in-whose-image-we-were-created-we/)

[Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d5/thomas-merton-231_being-human_we-are-what-we-love-if-we-love-god-in-wh_247450.jpg)

## Other authors on Identity

- [Dada Bhagwan 164 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/dada-bhagwan/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b010/author-frederick-lenz-36205.jpg) Frederick Lenz 78 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/frederick-lenz/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b008/author-eckhart-tolle-31242.jpg) Eckhart Tolle 67 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/eckhart-tolle/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b020/author-ramana-maharshi-77157.jpg) Ramana Maharshi 54 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/ramana-maharshi/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-dranil-kr-sinha-102.jpg) DrAnil Kr Sinha 48 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/dranil-kr-sinha/)
- [Ralph Waldo Emerson 36 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/ralph-waldo-emerson/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b008/author-deepak-chopra-28468.jpg) Deepak Chopra 36 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/deepak-chopra/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b020/author-rajneesh-77002.jpg) Rajneesh 35 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/rajneesh/)
- [Kilroy J. Oldster 34 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/kilroy-j-oldster/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-abhijit-naskar-99.jpg) Abhijit Naskar 28 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/abhijit-naskar/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-bryant-mcgill-108.jpg) Bryant McGill 27 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/bryant-mcgill/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b023/author-swami-vivekananda-88348.jpg) Swami Vivekananda 26 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/swami-vivekananda/)

## 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/)

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                        "text": "Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.",
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                        "text": "For the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self YOU have wanted for me, only the self that I have wanted : And I no longer want this false self. But now, Father, I come to You in your own Son's self ... and it is He Who Presents me to You.",
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                        "text": "The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to be open. In order to be open we have to renounce ourselves, in a sense we have to die to our image of ourselves, our autonomy, our fixation upon our self-willed identity.",
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                        "text": "We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real...and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists. (295)",
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                        "text": "“Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find Him I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find Him. But”",
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                        "text": "The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order.",
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                        "text": "“EVERY one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. And to be unknown of God is altogether too much privacy.”",
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                        "text": "For pride, which is the inordinate attribution of goods and values and glories to one's own contingent self, cannot exist where there is no contingent self to which anything can be attributed.",
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                        "text": "What does it mean to know and experience my own “nothingness?” It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my illusions and faults and mistakes, to separate myself from them as if they were not, and as if I were someone other than myself. This kind of self-annihilati on is only a worse illusion, it is a pretended humility which, by saying “I am nothing” I mean in effect “I wish I were not what I am.",
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                        "text": "After all, what is your personal identity? It is what you really are, your real self. None of us is what he thinks he is, or what other people think he is, still less what his passport says he is And it is fortunate for most of us that we are mistaken. We do not generally know what is good for us. That is because, in St. Bernard's language, our true personality has been concealed under the 'disguise' of a false self, the ego, whom we tend to worship in place of God.",
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                        "text": "“Everyone of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self..We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves. (34) Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular.(7) Our reality, our true self, is hidden in what appears to us to be nothingness…We can rise above this unreality and recover our hidden reality…(281) God Himself begins to live in me not only as my Creator but as my other and true self. (41)”",
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                        "text": "Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness, unification, self-discovery. Negative silence blurs and confuses our identity, and we lapse into daydreams or diffuse anxieties. Positive silence pulls us together and makes us realize who we are, who we might be, and the distance between these two.",
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                        "text": "First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for \"finding himself.\" If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?",
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                        "text": "Memory is corrupted and ruined by a crowd of memories. If I am going to have a true memory, there are a thousand things that must first be forgotten. Memory is not fully itself when it reaches only into the past. A memory that is not alive to the present does not remember the here and now, does not remember its true identity, is not memory at all. He who remembers nothing but facts and past events, and is never brought back into the present, is a victim of amnesia.",
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                        "text": "“Contemplation, on the contrary, is the experiential grasp of reality as subjective, not so much “mine” (which would signify “belonging to the external self”) but “myself” in existential mystery. Contemplation does not arrive at reality after a process of deduction, but by an intuitive awakening in which our free and personal reality becomes fully alive to its own existential depths, which open out into the mystery of God.”",
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                        "text": "“There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular. We must remember that this superficial “I” is not our real self. It is our “individuality” and our “empirical self” but it is not truly the hidden and mysterious person in whom we subsist before the eyes of God. The “I” that works in the world, thinks about itself, observes its own reactions and talks about itself is not the true “I” that has been united to God in Christ.”",
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                        "text": "“There are many other escapes from the empirical, external self, which might seem to be, but are not, contemplation. For instance, the experience of being seized and taken out of oneself by collective enthusiasm, in a totalitarian parade: the self-righteous upsurge of party loyalty that blots out conscience and absolves every criminal tendency in the name of Class, Nation, Party, Race or Sect. The danger and the attraction of these false mystiques of Nation and of Class is precisely that they seduce and pretend to satisfy those who are no longer aware of any deep or genuine spiritual need. The false mysticism of the Mass Society captivates men who are so alienated from themselves and from God that they are no longer capable of genuine spiritual experience. Yet it is precisely these ersatz forms of enthusiasm that are “opium” for the people, deadening their awareness of their deepest and most personal needs, alienating them from their true selves, putting conscience and personality to sleep and turning free, reasonable men into passive instruments of the power politician.”",
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                        "text": "Each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its own inviolable identity, gives glory to God by being precisely what He wants it to be here and now, in the circumstances ordained for it by His Love and His infinite Art.",
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                        "text": "“He who is controlled by objects Loses possession of his inner self: If he no longer values himself, How can he value others? If he no longer values others, He is abandoned. He has nothing left!”",
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                        "text": "To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.",
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                        "text": "As long as I continue to take myself seriously, how can I consider myself a saint? How can I consider myself a contemplative? For the self I bother about does not really exist, never will, never did except in my own imagination.",
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                        "text": "The secret of my full identity is hidden in Him. He alone can make me who I am, or rather who I will be when at last I fully begin to be. But unless I desire this identity and work to find it with Him and in Him, the work will never be done",
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                        "text": "The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction, from immersion in the common, the nondescript, the trivial, the sordid, the evanescent.",
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                        "text": "“We are what we love. If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in him and we cannot help being happy: we have already achieved something of the fullness of being for which we were destined in our creation. If we love everything else but God, we contradict the image born in our very essence, and we cannot help being unhappy, because we are living a caricature of what we are meant to be.”",
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            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```