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Peace Quotes by Thomas Merton

55 Peace quotes by Thomas Merton

All Peace quotes Thomas Merton’s page

Thomas Merton reminds us that peace needs balance and silence. He warns that intolerance, exclusivity, or vague slogans cannot build lasting peace, and that inner quiet and rhythm are essential. He also says that true peace demands heroic sacrifice, and that frenzy or violent zeal erodes the inner wisdom needed for lasting calm.

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The root of war is fear.

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The peace produced by grace is a spiritual stability too deep for violence — it is unshakeable

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Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice.

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The God of peace is never glorified by human violence.

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Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.

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Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

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If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.

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To become attached to the experience of peace is to threaten the true and essential and vital union of our soul with…

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We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with…

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When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but…

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To be alone by being part of the universe-fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you…

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Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.

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In a world of noise, confusion and conflict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline and peace. In…

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In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you…

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“Frenzy destroys our inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom…

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“To allow oneself to be carried away By a multitude of conflicting concerns, To surrender to too many demands, ...To commit oneself…

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“Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains…

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You will never be able to have perfect interior peace and recollection unless you are detached even from the desire of peace…

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“Is it any wonder that there can be no peace in a world where everything possible is done to guarantee that the…

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Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs…

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“Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering…

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By my monastic life and vows I am saying no to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political trials,…

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We who claim to love peace and justice must always be careful that we do not use our righteousness to provoke the…

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“Bodily agitation, then, is an enemy to the spirit. And by agitation I do not necessarily mean exercise or movement. There is…

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The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to…

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Paradoxically, I have found peace because I have always been dissatisfied. My moments of depression and despair turn out to be renewals,…

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I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism,…

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“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure…

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“It is useless to try to make peace with ourselves by being pleased with everything we have done. In order to settle…

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Our Christian destiny is, in fact, a great one: but we cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great.…

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In order to settle down in the quiet of our own being we must learn to be detached from the results of…

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There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by nonviolent methods most easily succumbs; activism…

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May we all grow in grace and peace and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being.…

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I have only one desire, and that is the desire for solitude-to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to…

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Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes…

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“Many of our most cherished plans for the glory of God are only inordinate passion in disguise. And the proof of this…

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I am against war, against violence, against violent revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences, for nonviolent but nevertheless radical changes. Change is…

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“Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection and may the peace of Christ exult in your hearts in…

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To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself…

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As long as I am content to know that He is infinitely greater than I, and that I cannot know Him unless…

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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…

If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must…

It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is…

We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human…

The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the…

To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a…

The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of…

Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in…

Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one…

Love winter when the plant says nothing.

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of…

“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of…

I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not…

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…

“Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and fruitful silence…