On Pride: This sickness is most dangerous when it succeeds in looking like humility. When a proud man thinks he is humble… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The real reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even a God can… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
They were in the world and not of it--not because they were saints, but in a different way: because they were artists.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
May God prevent us from becoming "right-thinking men"-that is to say men who agree perfectly with their own police. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To love our nothingness we must love everything in us that the proud man loves when he loves himself. But we must… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The man who sweats under his mask, whose role makes him itch with discomfort, who hates the division in himself, is already… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The only influence that can really upset the injustice and iniquity of men is the power that breathes in the Christian tradition,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The psychological impotence of our enraged generation must be traced to the overwhelming accusation of insincerity which every man and woman has… — 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
When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The Lord did not create suffering. Pain and death came into the world with the fall of man. But after man had… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Since no man ever can, or could, live by himself and for himself alone, the destinies of thousands of other people were… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things. Even with the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For now, oh my God, it is to You alone that I can talk, because nobody else will understand. I cannot bring… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is not humility to insist on being someone that you are not. It is as much as saying that you know… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For power can guarantee the interests of some men but it can never foster the good of man. Power always protects the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The devil makes many disciples by preaching against sin. He convinces them that the great evil of sin, induces a crisis of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To know the Cross is not merely to know our own sufferings. For the Cross is the sign of salvation, and no… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Our God...is a consuming fire. And if we, by love, become transformed into Him and burn as He burns, His fire will… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The lights of prayer that make us imagine we are beginning to be angels are sometimes only signs that we are finally… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We who claim to love peace and justice must always be careful that we do not use our righteousness to provoke the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Every moment and every event of everyman's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The married man and the mother of a Christian family, if they are faithful to their obligations, will fulfill a mission that… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In general, it can be said that no contemplative life is possible without ascetic self-discipline. One must learn to survive without the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
a man can radically change his life and attain to a deeper meaning, a more perfect integration, a more complete fulfillment, a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man's life, to get behind the façade of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is both dangerous and easy to hate man as he is because he is not what he ought to be. If… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
All men who live only according to their five senses, and seek nothing beyond the gratification of their natural appetites for pleasure… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The world of men has forgotten the joys of silence, the peace of solitude, which is necessary, to some extent, for the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The Hindus are not looking for us to send them men who will build schools and hospitals, although those things are good… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If a writer is so cautious that he never writes anything that cannot be criticized, he will never be able to write… — 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
