---
title: "146 Life Quotes By Thomas Merton"
description: "Merton's life quotes emphasize humility, love, and the importance of being present over seeking worldly approval."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/abb/thomas-merton-231_infinite_infinite-sharing-is-the-law-of-god-s-inn_1990515.jpg"
---

> [Infinite sharing is the law of God s inner life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/infinite-sharing-is-the-law-of-god-s-inner-life/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/abb/thomas-merton-231_infinite_infinite-sharing-is-the-law-of-god-s-inn_1990515.jpg)

> [Lovely morning! How lovely life can be!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/lovely-morning-how-lovely-life-can-be/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca6/thomas-merton-231_good-morning_lovely-morning-how-lovely-life-can-be-83_837276.jpg)

> [Today will never come again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/today-will-never-come-again/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5af/thomas-merton-231_come_today-will-never-come-again-2867231_2867231.jpg)

> [Our real journey in life is interior.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/our-real-journey-in-life-is-interior/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/585/thomas-merton-231_conformity_our-real-journey-in-life-is-interior-126_1269301.jpg)

> [Love is an intensification of life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/love-is-an-intensification-of-life/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/11a/thomas-merton-231_funny_love-is-an-intensification-of-life-15660_1566030.jpg)

> [The purpose of our lives is to find the purpose of our lives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-purpose-of-our-lives-is-to-find-the-purpose-of-our-lives/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/453/thomas-merton-231_goals_the-purpose-of-our-lives-is-to-find-the_1924978.jpg)

> [Contemplation is the loving sense of this life, this presence and this eternity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/contemplation-is-the-loving-sense-of-this-life-this-presence-and-this/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4c/thomas-merton-231_contemplation_contemplation-is-the-loving-sense-of-thi_2200423.jpg)

> [Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/every-moment-and-every-event-of-every-man-s-life-on-earth-plants/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/710/thomas-merton-231_earth_every-moment-and-every-event-of-every-ma_2150311.jpg)

> [“Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis but first of all by living.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/life-is-not-attained-by-reasoning-and-analysis-but-first-of-all-by/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c62/thomas-merton-231_intelligence_life-is-not-attained-by-reasoning-and-an_1048383.jpg)

> [A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless, than one that always verges on despair.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/a-life-that-is-without-problems-may-literally-be-more-hopeless-than/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a03/thomas-merton-231_despair_a-life-that-is-without-problems-may-lite_363720.jpg)

> [Duty does not have to be dull. Love can make it beautiful and fill it with life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/duty-does-not-have-to-be-dull-love-can-make-it-beautiful-and-fill-it/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c26/thomas-merton-231_beautiful_duty-does-not-have-to-be-dull-love-can-m_2561596.jpg)

> [Life reveals itself to us only in so far as well live it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/life-reveals-itself-to-us-only-in-so-far-as-well-live-it/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/thomas-merton-231_life_life-reveals-itself-to-us-only-in-so-far_3138771.jpg)

> [There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/there-is-always-a-temptation-to-diddle-around-in-the-contemplative/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c79/thomas-merton-231_contemplative_there-is-always-a-temptation-to-diddle-a_1810131.jpg)

> [...love triumphs, at least in this life, not by eliminating evil once for all, but by resisting and overcoming it anew every…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/love-triumphs-at-least-in-this-life-not-by-eliminating-evil-once-for/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba4/thomas-merton-231_eliminating_love-triumphs-at-least-in-this-life-not_1146790.jpg)

> [Contemplative living is living in true relationship with oneself, God, others and nature, free of the illusions of separateness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/contemplative-living-is-living-in-true-relationship-with-oneself-god/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3f/thomas-merton-231_contemplative_contemplative-living-is-living-in-true-r_1180028.jpg)

> [The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reason and analysis but first of all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-solution-of-the-problem-of-life-is-life-itself-life-is-not/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d8/thomas-merton-231_analysis_the-solution-of-the-problem-of-life-is-l_518427.jpg)

> [That is God's call to us - simply to be people who are content to live close to him and to renew…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/that-is-god-s-call-to-us-simply-to-be-people-who-are-content-to-live/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9fe/thomas-merton-231_closeness_that-is-god-s-call-to-us-simply-to-be-pe_2469297.jpg)

> [Our real journey in life is interior; It is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/our-real-journey-in-life-is-interior-it-is-a-matter-of-growth/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/574/thomas-merton-231_action_our-real-journey-in-life-is-interior-it_3203641.jpg)

> [The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the other… The whole purpose of life is to live…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-whole-idea-of-compassion-is-based-on-a-keen-awareness-of-the/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8ff/thomas-merton-231_awareness_the-whole-idea-of-compassion-is-based-on_1471565.jpg)

> [Each individual Christian and each new age of the Church has to make this rediscovery, this return to the source of Christian…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/each-individual-christian-and-each-new-age-of-the-church-has-to-make/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dfc/thomas-merton-231_age_each-individual-christian-and-each-new-a_2518755.jpg)

> [It is true that we are called to create a better world. But we are first of all called to a more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/it-is-true-that-we-are-called-to-create-a-better-world-but-we-are/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4df/thomas-merton-231_better-world_it-is-true-that-we-are-called-to-create_2742631.jpg)

> [Living is not thinking. Thought is formed and guided by objective reality outside us. Living is the constant adjustment of thought to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/living-is-not-thinking-thought-is-formed-and-guided-by-objective/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de5/thomas-merton-231_constant_living-is-not-thinking-thought-is-formed_2597531.jpg)

> [Faith is the door to the full inner life of the Church, a life which includes not only access to an authoritative…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/faith-is-the-door-to-the-full-inner-life-of-the-church-a-life-which/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a1/thomas-merton-231_body_faith-is-the-door-to-the-full-inner-life_3035516.jpg)

> [Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/contemplation-is-life-itself-fully-awake-fully-active-and-fully-aware/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/444/thomas-merton-231_active_contemplation-is-life-itself-fully-awake_2706046.jpg)

> [Every moment and every event of everyman's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/every-moment-and-every-event-of-everyman-s-life-on-earth-plants/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c78/thomas-merton-231_earth_every-moment-and-every-event-of-everyman_2986183.jpg)

> [“In all the situations of life the “will of God” comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/in-all-the-situations-of-life-the-will-of-god-comes-to-us-not-merely/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66b/thomas-merton-231_life_in-all-the-situations-of-life-the-will-o_2342533.jpg)

> [If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/if-you-want-to-identify-me-ask-me-not-where-i-live-or-what-i-like-to/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/162/thomas-merton-231_destiny_if-you-want-to-identify-me-ask-me-not-wh_1942413.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)

> [O God, teach me to be satisfied with my own helplessness in the spiritual life. Teach me to be content with Your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/o-god-teach-me-to-be-satisfied-with-my-own-helplessness-in-the/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c9/thomas-merton-231_appetite_o-god-teach-me-to-be-satisfied-with-my-o_2878170.jpg)

> [To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/to-be-grateful-is-to-recognize-the-love-of-god-in-everything-he-has-2/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/thomas-merton-231_awakening_to-be-grateful-is-to-recognize-the-love_1930011.jpg)

> [“The Active Life If an expert does not have some problem to vex him, he is unhappy! If a philosopher's teaching is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-active-life-if-an-expert-does-not-have-some-problem-to-vex-him-he/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/thomas-merton-231_active-life_the-active-life-if-an-expert-does-not-ha_1678228.jpg)

> [“In other words, I have tried to learn in my writing a monastic lesson I could probably not have learned otherwise: to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/in-other-words-i-have-tried-to-learn-in-my-writing-a-monastic-lesson/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2d3/thomas-merton-231_accepting-life_in-other-words-i-have-tried-to-learn-in_1413806.jpg)

> [“My chief care should not be to find pleasure or success, health or life or money or rest or even things like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/my-chief-care-should-not-be-to-find-pleasure-or-success-health-or/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/27f/thomas-merton-231_death_my-chief-care-should-not-be-to-find-plea_1486502.jpg)

> [“Prayer does not blind us to the world, but it transforms our vision of the world, and makes us see it, all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/prayer-does-not-blind-us-to-the-world-but-it-transforms-our-vision-of/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df0/thomas-merton-231_contemplation_prayer-does-not-blind-us-to-the-world-bu_265058.jpg)

> [“In actual fact, conventions are the death of real tradition as they are of all real life. They are parasites which attach…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/in-actual-fact-conventions-are-the-death-of-real-tradition-as-they/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/51f/thomas-merton-231_convention_in-actual-fact-conventions-are-the-death_2448165.jpg)

> [“When Life was Full In the age when life on earth was full, no one paid any special attention to worthy men,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/when-life-was-full-in-the-age-when-life-on-earth-was-full-no-one-paid/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/24e/thomas-merton-231_life_when-life-was-full-in-the-age-when-life_382785.jpg)

> [“There is a 'movement' of meditation, expressing the basic 'paschal' rhythm of the Christian life, the passage from death to life in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/there-is-a-movement-of-meditation-expressing-the-basic-paschal-rhythm/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d78/thomas-merton-231_christ_there-is-a-movement-of-meditation-expres_2805143.jpg)

> [Love, in fact, is the spiritual life; and without it, all other exercises of the spirit are emptied of content.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/love-in-fact-is-the-spiritual-life-and-without-it-all-other-exercises/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e8f/thomas-merton-231_exercise_love-in-fact-is-the-spiritual-life-and-w_3124630.jpg)

> [... but any fool knows that you don't need money to get enjoyment out of life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/but-any-fool-knows-that-you-don-t-need-money-to-get-enjoyment-out-of/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce7/thomas-merton-231_enjoyment_but-any-fool-knows-that-you-don-t-need-m_2880975.jpg)

> [The meaning of life is found in openness to being and "being present" in full awareness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-meaning-of-life-is-found-in-openness-to-being-and-being-present/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/801/thomas-merton-231_awareness_the-meaning-of-life-is-found-in-openness_141606.jpg)

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## 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": "That is God's call to us - simply to be people who are content to live close to him and to renew the kind of life in which the closeness is felt and experienced.",
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                        "text": "Our real journey in life is interior; It is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts. Never was it more necessary to respond to that action.",
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                        "text": "Each individual Christian and each new age of the Church has to make this rediscovery, this return to the source of Christian life.",
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                        "text": "It is true that we are called to create a better world. But we are first of all called to a more immediate and exalted task: that of creating our own lives.",
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                        "text": "Living is not thinking. Thought is formed and guided by objective reality outside us. Living is the constant adjustment of thought to life and life to thought in such a way that we are always growing, always experiencing new things in the old and old things in the new. Thus life is always new.",
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                        "text": "Faith is the door to the full inner life of the Church, a life which includes not only access to an authoritative teaching but above all to a deep personal experience which is at once unique and yet shared by the whole Body of Christ, in the Spirit of Christ.",
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                        "text": "Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent, and infinitely abundant Source.",
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                        "text": "Every moment and every event of everyman's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men.",
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                        "text": "“In all the situations of life the “will of God” comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law but above all as an interior invitation of personal love. Too often the conventional conception of “God’s will” as a sphinx-like and arbitrary force bearing down upon us with implacable hostility, leads men to lose faith in a God they cannot find it possible to love.”",
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                        "text": "If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.",
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                        "text": "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.",
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                        "text": "O God, teach me to be satisfied with my own helplessness in the spiritual life. Teach me to be content with Your grace that comes to me in darkness and that works things I cannot see. Teach me to be happy that I can depend on You. To depend on You should be enough for an eternity of joy. To depend on You by itself ought to be infinitely greater than any joy which my own intellectual appetite could desire.",
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                        "text": "To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.",
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                        "text": "“The Active Life If an expert does not have some problem to vex him, he is unhappy! If a philosopher's teaching is never attacked, she pines away! If critics have no one on whom to exercise their spite, they are unhappy. All such people are prisoners in the world of objects. He who wants followers, seeks political power. She who wants reputation, holds an office. The strong man looks for weights to lift. The brave woman looks for an emergency in which she can show bravery. The swordsman wants a battle in which he can swing his sword. People past their prime prefer a dignified retirement, in which they may seem profound. People experienced in law seek difficult cases to extend the application of the laws. Liturgists and musicians like festivals in which they parade their ceremonious talents. The benevolent, the dutiful, are always looking for chances to display virtue. Where would the gardener be if there were no more weeds? What would become of business without a market of fools? Where would the masses be if there were no pretext for getting jammed together and making noise? What would become of labor if there were no superfluous objects to be made? Produce! Get results! Make money! Make friends! Make changes! Or you will die of despair! Those who are caught in the machinery of power take no joy except in activity and change--the whirring of the machine! Whenever an occasion for action presents itself, they are compelled to act; they cannot help themselves. They are inexorably moved, like the ma- chine of which they are a part. Prisoners in the world of objects, they have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter! They are pressed down and crushed by external forces, fashion, the mar- ket, events, public opinion. Never in a whole lifetime do they re- cover their right mind! The active life! What a pity!”",
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                        "text": "“In other words, I have tried to learn in my writing a monastic lesson I could probably not have learned otherwise: to let go of my idea of myself, to take myself with more than one grain of salt... In religious terms, this is simply a matter of accepting life, and everything in life as a gift, and clinging to none of it, as far as you are able. You give some of it to others, if you can. Yet one should be able to share things with others without bothering too much about how they like it, either, or how they accept it. Assume they will accept it, if they need it. And if they don’t need it, why should they accept it? That is their business. Let me accept what is mine and give them all their share, and go my way.”",
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                        "text": "“My chief care should not be to find pleasure or success, health or life or money or rest or even things like virtue and wisdom—still less their opposites, pain, failure, sickness, death. But in all that happens, my one desire and my one joy should be to know: “Here is the thing that God has willed for me. In this His love is found, and in accepting this I can give back His love to Him and give myself with it to Him. For in giving myself I shall find Him and He is life everlasting.” By”",
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                        "text": "“Prayer does not blind us to the world, but it transforms our vision of the world, and makes us see it, all men, and all the history of mankind, in the light of God. To pray 'in spirit and in truth' enables us to enter into contact with that infinite love, that inscrutable freedom which is at work behind the complexities and the intricacies of human existence. This does not mean fabricating for ourselves pious rationalizations to explain everything that happens. It involves no surreptitious manipulation of the hard truths of life.”",
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                        "text": "“In actual fact, conventions are the death of real tradition as they are of all real life. They are parasites which attach themselves to the living organism of tradition and devour all its reality, turning it into a hollow formality. Tradition is living and active, but convention is passive and dead. Tradition does not form us automatically: we have to work to understand it. Convention is accepted passively, as a matter of routine. Therefore, convention easily becomes an evasion of reality. It offers us only pretended ways of solving the problems of living - a system of gestures and formalities. Tradition really teaches us to live and shows us how to take full responsibility for our own lives. Thus tradition is often flatly opposed to what is ordinary, to what is mere routine. But convention, which is a mere repetition of familiar routines, follows the line of least resistance. One goes through an act, without trying to understand the meaning of it all, merely because everyone else does the same. Tradition, which is always old, is at the same time ever new because it is always reviving - born again in each new generation, to be lived and applied in a new and particular way. Convention is simply the ossification of social customs. The activities of conventional people are merely excuses for NOT acting in a more integrally human way. Tradition nourishes the life of the spirit; convention merely disguises its interior decay.”",
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                        "text": "“When Life was Full In the age when life on earth was full, no one paid any special attention to worthy men, nor did they single out the man of ability. Rulers were simply the highest branches on the tree, and the people were like deer in the woods. They were honest and righteous without realizing that they were “doing their duty.” They loved each other and did not know that this was “love of neighbor.” They deceived no one yet they did not know that they were “men to be trusted.” They were reliable and did not know that this was “good faith.” They lived freely together giving and taking, and did not know that they were generous. For this reason their deeds have not been narrated. They made no history.”",
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                        "text": "“There is a 'movement' of meditation, expressing the basic 'paschal' rhythm of the Christian life, the passage from death to life in Christ. Sometimes prayer, meditation and contemplation are 'death' - a kind of descent into our own nothingness, a recognition of helplessness, frustration, infidelity, confusion, ignorance. Note how common this theme is in the Psalms. If we need help in meditation we can turn to scriptural texts that express this profound distress of man in his nothingness and his total need of God. Then as we determine to face the hard realities of our inner life and humbly for faith, he draws us out of darkness into light - he hears us, answers our prayer, recognizes our need, and grants us the help we require - if only by giving us more faith to believe that he can and will help us in his own time. This is already a sufficient answer.”",
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                        "text": "... but any fool knows that you don't need money to get enjoyment out of life.",
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