---
title: "35 May Quotes By Thomas Merton"
description: "35 May quotes by Thomas Merton. Plus more from Thomas Merton and more May sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4c7/thomas-merton-231_darkness_for-the-ones-who-are-called-saints-by-hu_1309037.jpg"
---

> [For the ones who are called saints by human opinion on earth may very well be devils, and their light may very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/for-the-ones-who-are-called-saints-by-human-opinion-on-earth-may-very/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4c7/thomas-merton-231_darkness_for-the-ones-who-are-called-saints-by-hu_1309037.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)

> [May God prevent us from becoming "right-thinking men"-that is to say men who agree perfectly with their own police.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/may-god-prevent-us-from-becoming-right-thinking-men-that-is-to-say/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/19c/thomas-merton-231_agree_may-god-prevent-us-from-becoming-right-t_697678.jpg)

> [May we all grow in grace and peace and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/may-we-all-grow-in-grace-and-peace-and-not-neglect-the-silence-that/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a0/thomas-merton-231_failing_may-we-all-grow-in-grace-and-peace-and-n_200555.jpg)

> [Christ is born to us today, in order that he may appear to the whole world through us.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/christ-is-born-to-us-today-in-order-that-he-may-appear-to-the-whole/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cef/thomas-merton-231_born_christ-is-born-to-us-today-in-order-that_1468149.jpg)

> [The sacred attitude is, then, one of deep and fundamental respect for the real in whatever new form it may present itself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-sacred-attitude-is-then-one-of-deep-and-fundamental-respect-for/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/edd/thomas-merton-231_attitude_the-sacred-attitude-is-then-one-of-deep_2115507.jpg)

> [People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/people-may-spend-their-whole-lives-climbing-the-ladder-of-success/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6dd/thomas-merton-231_climbing_people-may-spend-their-whole-lives-climb_889457.jpg)

> [My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me...you will lead…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/my-lord-god-i-have-no-idea-where-i-am-going-i-do-not-see-the-road-2/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3bb/thomas-merton-231_death_my-lord-god-i-have-no-idea-where-i-am-go_1606537.jpg)

> [“I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may mean? I myself…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-seek-to-speak-to-you-in-some-way-as-your-own-self-who-can-tell-what/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba7/thomas-merton-231_book_i-seek-to-speak-to-you-in-some-way-as-yo_636658.jpg)

> [To be risen with Christ means not only that one has a choice and that one may live by a higher law…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/to-be-risen-with-christ-means-not-only-that-one-has-a-choice-and-that/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed4/thomas-merton-231_and-love_to-be-risen-with-christ-means-not-only-t_1392738.jpg)

> [True happiness is not found in any other reward than that of being united with God. If I seek some other reward…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/true-happiness-is-not-found-in-any-other-reward-than-that-of-being/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a0d/thomas-merton-231_found_true-happiness-is-not-found-in-any-other_1001473.jpg)

> [But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/but-the-man-who-is-not-afraid-to-admit-everything-that-he-sees-to-be/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba0/thomas-merton-231_compassion_but-the-man-who-is-not-afraid-to-admit-e_872868.jpg)

> [God must be allowed the right to speak unpredictably… We must find him in our enemy, or we may lose him even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/god-must-be-allowed-the-right-to-speak-unpredictably-we-must-find-him/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08e/thomas-merton-231_abstraction_god-must-be-allowed-the-right-to-speak-u_2141238.jpg)

> [God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/god-who-is-everywhere-never-leaves-us-yet-he-seems-sometimes-to-be/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e84/thomas-merton-231_absent_god-who-is-everywhere-never-leaves-us-ye_1655938.jpg)

> [When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/when-i-pray-for-peace-i-pray-not-only-that-the-enemies-of-my-own/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e9a/thomas-merton-231_cease_when-i-pray-for-peace-i-pray-not-only-th_2432697.jpg)

> [Zen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/zen-enriches-no-one-there-is-no-body-to-be-found-the-birds-may-come/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/863/thomas-merton-231_bird_zen-enriches-no-one-there-is-no-body-to_993908.jpg)

> [I had refused to pay any attention to the moral laws upon which all our vitality and sanity depend: and so now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-had-refused-to-pay-any-attention-to-the-moral-laws-upon-which-all/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f8c/thomas-merton-231_attention_i-had-refused-to-pay-any-attention-to-th_1485309.jpg)

> [We know when we are following our vocation when our soul is set free from preoccupation with itself and is able to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/we-know-when-we-are-following-our-vocation-when-our-soul-is-set-free/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/891/thomas-merton-231_able_we-know-when-we-are-following-our-vocati_2809467.jpg)

> [The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-reality-that-is-present-to-us-and-in-us-call-it-being-silence-and/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ee7/thomas-merton-231_capacity_the-reality-that-is-present-to-us-and-in_1144415.jpg)

> [Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/only-the-man-who-has-had-to-face-despair-is-really-convinced-that-he/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e49/thomas-merton-231_compassion_only-the-man-who-has-had-to-face-despair_551952.jpg)

> [The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child may have imagination, originality, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-modern-child-may-early-in-his-or-her-existence-have-natural/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6cd/thomas-merton-231_absorption_the-modern-child-may-early-in-his-or-her_3179590.jpg)

> [Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/do-not-depend-on-the-hope-of-results-you-may-have-to-face-the-fact/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/86c/thomas-merton-231_achieve_do-not-depend-on-the-hope-of-results-you_780754.jpg)

> [Place no hope in the feeling of assurance, in spiritual comfort. You may well have to get along without this. Place no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/place-no-hope-in-the-feeling-of-assurance-in-spiritual-comfort-you/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b28/thomas-merton-231_able_place-no-hope-in-the-feeling-of-assuranc_428555.jpg)

> [No matter how ruined man and his world may seem to be, and no matter how terrible man's despair may become, as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/no-matter-how-ruined-man-and-his-world-may-seem-to-be-and-no-matter/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c4/thomas-merton-231_be-a-man_no-matter-how-ruined-man-and-his-world-m_2863197.jpg)

> [We do not pray for the sake of praying, but for the sake of being heard. We do not pray in order…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/we-do-not-pray-for-the-sake-of-praying-but-for-the-sake-of-being/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/026/thomas-merton-231_answers_we-do-not-pray-for-the-sake-of-praying-b_2809881.jpg)

> [God has left sin in the world in order that there may be forgiveness: not only the secret forgiveness by which He…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/god-has-left-sin-in-the-world-in-order-that-there-may-be-forgiveness/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/52f/thomas-merton-231_compassion_god-has-left-sin-in-the-world-in-order-t_2549116.jpg)

> [We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/we-cannot-master-everything-taste-everything-understand-everything/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d05/thomas-merton-231_able_we-cannot-master-everything-taste-everyt_1528247.jpg)

> [In the natural order no matter what ideals may be theoretically possible, most people more or less live for themselves and for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/in-the-natural-order-no-matter-what-ideals-may-be-theoretically/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a7/thomas-merton-231_aim_in-the-natural-order-no-matter-what-idea_2861111.jpg)

> [I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-believe-we-are-going-to-have-to-prepare-ourselves-for-the-difficult/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/965/thomas-merton-231_ask-me_i-believe-we-are-going-to-have-to-prepar_2287916.jpg)

> [“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-have-my-own-way-to-walk-and-for-some-reason-or-other-zen-is-right/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/852/thomas-merton-231_asphyxiation_i-have-my-own-way-to-walk-and-for-some-r_83507.jpg)

> [A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thought for life and ideas for actions. The activity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/a-purely-mental-life-may-be-destructive-if-it-leads-us-to-substitute/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/383/thomas-merton-231_action_a-purely-mental-life-may-be-destructive_266188.jpg)

> [The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-man-who-fears-to-be-alone-will-never-be-anything-but-lonely-no/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/357/thomas-merton-231_alone-with-god_the-man-who-fears-to-be-alone-will-never_105791.jpg)

> [If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some…](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/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e5/thomas-merton-231_disgusted_if-you-write-for-god-you-will-reach-many_61230.jpg)

> [The land which thou goest to possess is not like the land of Egypt from whence thou camest out... For my thoughts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-land-which-thou-goest-to-possess-is-not-like-the-land-of-egypt/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/19e/thomas-merton-231_bread_the-land-which-thou-goest-to-possess-is_2193676.jpg)

> [The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/the-thing-about-zen-is-that-it-pushes-contradictions-to-their/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a87/thomas-merton-231_be-good_the-thing-about-zen-is-that-it-pushes-co_1531545.jpg)

## Other authors on May

## 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": "A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless, than one that always verges on despair.",
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                        "text": "May God prevent us from becoming \"right-thinking men\"-that is to say men who agree perfectly with their own police.",
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                        "text": "May we all grow in grace and peace and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.",
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                        "text": "Christ is born to us today, in order that he may appear to the whole world through us.",
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                        "text": "The sacred attitude is, then, one of deep and fundamental respect for the real in whatever new form it may present itself.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.",
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                        "text": "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me...you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.",
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                        "text": "“I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may mean? I myself do not know, but if you listen, things will be said that are perhaps not written in this book. And this will be due not to me but to the One who lives and speaks in both.”",
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                        "text": "To be risen with Christ means not only that one has a choice and that one may live by a higher law - the law of grace and love - but that one must do so. The first obligation of the Christian is to maintain their freedom from all superstitions, all blind taboos and religious formalities, indeed from all empty forms of legalism.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "True happiness is not found in any other reward than that of being united with God. If I seek some other reward besides God Himself, I may get my reward but I cannot be happy.",
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                        "text": "But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God's love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "God must be allowed the right to speak unpredictably… We must find him in our enemy, or we may lose him even in our friend. We must find him in the pagan or we will lose him in our own selves, substituting for his living presence an empty abstraction.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.",
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                        "text": "When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.",
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                        "text": "Zen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while in the place where it is thought to be. But they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the \"nothing,\" the \"no-body\" that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey.",
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                        "text": "I had refused to pay any attention to the moral laws upon which all our vitality and sanity depend: and so now I was reduced to the condition of a silly old woman, worrying about a lot of imaginary rules of health, standards of food-value, and a thousand minute details of conduct that were in themselves completely ridiculous and stupid, and yet which haunted me with vague and terrific sanctions. If I eat this, I may go out of my mind. If I do not eat that, I may die in the night.",
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                        "text": "We know when we are following our vocation when our soul is set free from preoccupation with itself and is able to seek God and even to find Him, even though it may not appear to find Him. Gratitude and confidence and freedom from ourselves: these are signs that we have found our vocation and are living up to it even though everything else may seem to have gone wrong. They give us peace in any suffering. They teach us to laugh at despair. And we may have to.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by learning to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen) we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of Love for which there can be no explanations… May we all grow in grace and peace, and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.",
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                        "text": "Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy never seek it. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair.",
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                        "text": "The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child may have imagination, originality, a simple and individual response to reality, and even a tendency to moments of thoughtful silence and absorption. All these tendencies, however, are soon destroyed by the dominant culture. The child becomes a yelling, brash, false little monster, brandishing a toy gun or dressed up like some character he has seen on television.",
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                            "caption": "“The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child…” — Thomas Merton",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Place no hope in the feeling of assurance, in spiritual comfort. You may well have to get along without this. Place no hope in the inspirational preachers of Christian sunshine, who are able to pick you up and set you back on your feet and make you feel good for three or four days-until you fold up and collapse into despair. Self-confidence is a precious natural gift, a sign of health. But it is not the same thing as faith. Faith is much deeper, and it must be deep enough to subsist when we are weak, when we are sick, when our self-confidence is gone, when our self-respect is gone.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "No matter how ruined man and his world may seem to be, and no matter how terrible man's despair may become, as long as he continues to be a man his very humanity continues to tell him that life has a meaning.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "We do not pray for the sake of praying, but for the sake of being heard. We do not pray in order to listen to ourselves praying but in order that God may hear us and answer us. Also, we do not pray in order to receive just any answer: it must be God's answer.",
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                            "caption": "“We do not pray for the sake of praying, but for the sake of being heard. We do not pray in order to listen…” — Thomas Merton",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "God has left sin in the world in order that there may be forgiveness: not only the secret forgiveness by which He Himself cleanses our souls, but the manifest forgiveness by which we have mercy on one another and so give expression to the fact that He is living, by His mercy, in our own hearts.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to retain the thing necessary for us-whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "In the natural order no matter what ideals may be theoretically possible, most people more or less live for themselves and for their own interests and pleasures or for those of their own family or group, and therefore they are constantly interfering with one another's aims, and hurting one another and injuring one another, whether they mean it or not.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism, and work slowly towards a world federation of peaceful nations. How will this be possible? Don't ask me. I don't know. But unless we develop a moral, spiritual, and political wisdom that is proportionate to our technological skill, our skill may end us.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever I go. So there it is, with all its beautiful purposelessness, and it has become very familiar to me though I do not know \"what it is.\" Or even if it is an \"it.\" Not to be foolish and multiply words, I'll say simply that it seems to me that Zen is the very atmosphere of the Gospels, and the Gospels are bursting with it. It is the proper climate for any monk, no matter what kind of monk he may be. If I could not breathe Zen I would probably die of spiritual asphyxiation.”",
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                            "caption": "“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever I go. So…” — Thomas Merton",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thought for life and ideas for actions. The activity proper to man is purely mental because man is not just a disembodied mind. Our destiny is to live out what we think, because unless we live what we know, we do not even know it. It is only by making our knowledge part of ourselves, through action, that we enter into the reality that is signified by our concepts.",
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                        "text": "The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people. But the man who learns, in solitude and recollection, to be at peace with his own loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely natural companionship, comes to know the invisible companionship of God. Such a one is alone with God in all places, and he alone truly enjoys the companionship of other men, because he loves them in God in Whom their presence is not tiresome, and because of Whom his own love for them can never know satiety.",
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                        "text": "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 you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted that you will wish that you were dead.",
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                        "text": "The land which thou goest to possess is not like the land of Egypt from whence thou camest out... For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord...Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near...Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which doth not satisfy you?",
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                        "text": "The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence. And Zen. suggests that we may be driving toward one or the other on a cosmic scale. Driving toward them because, one way or the other, as madmen or innocents, we are already there. It might be good to open our eyes and see.",
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