If we seek paradise outside ourselves, we cannot have paradise in our hearts. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For if I am to love truly and freely, I must be able to give something that is truly my own to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If we have not silence, God is not heard in our music. If we have no rest God, does not bless our… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Stop asking yourself questions that have no meaning. Or if they have, you'll find out when you need to -- find out… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If Zen has any preference it is for glass that is plain, has no color, and is "just glass." — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If you want to have a spiritual life you must unify your life. A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Very well, then: why are you attached to any one book, or to the words and ways of one saint when he… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Not only does silence give us a chance to understand ourselves better, to get a truer and more balanced perspective on our… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We assume that others are receiving the kind of appreciation we want for ourselves, and we proceed on the assumption that since… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is to mind your own business. Nothing is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Do not be too quick to assume your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if we only… — 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
One thing is certain: the humility of faith, if it is followed by the proper consequences-by the acceptance of the work and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Paradoxically, I have found peace because I have always been dissatisfied. My moments of depression and despair turn out to be renewals,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever… — 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
Perhaps peace is not, after all, something you work for, or 'fight for.' It is indeed 'fighting for peace' that starts all… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If it so happened that I had once written a best-seller, this was a pure accident, due to inattention and naivete, and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city? — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If there was no other proof of the infinite patience of God, a very good one could be found in His toleration… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. The "sanity" of modern man… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The whole world has risen in Christ... If God is 'all in all,' then everything is in fact paradise, because it is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. For… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as Gods will when you yourself have warm clothes and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect on me is to live on the doorstep… — 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 are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to 'like' one another. Love governs the will: 'liking' is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for joy. And if… — 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
“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
I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
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… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
“Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and fruitful silence… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
