Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Hence the aim of meditation, in the context of Christian faith, is not to arrive at an objective and apparently 'scientific' knowledge… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The peace produced by grace is a spiritual stability too deep for violence — it is unshakeable — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“This false “faith” which is what we often live by and which we even come to confuse with our “religion” is subjected… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Now anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. It is the fruit of unanswered questions. But questions cannot go unanswered unless they… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The Holy Spirit is the most perfect gift of the Father to men, and yet He is the one gift which the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The only trouble is that in the spiritual life there are no tricks and no shortcuts. Those who imagine that they can… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Bodily agitation, then, is an enemy to the spirit. And by agitation I do not necessarily mean exercise or movement. There is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The man of faith who has never experienced doubt is not a man of faith. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I came with the notion of perhaps saying something for monks and to monks of all religions because I am supposed to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Suppose that my "poverty" be a secret hunger for spiritual riches: suppose that by pretending to empty myself, pretending to be silent,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Most of the world is either asleep or dead. The religious people are, for the most part, asleep. The irreligious are dead.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The whole of life is to spiritualize our activities by humility and faith, to silence our nature by charity.” — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“For it seems to me that the first responsibility of a man of faith is to make his faith really part of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The religious answer is not really religious if it's not fully real. Evasion is the answer of superstition.” — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“What a revelation it was, to discover so many ordinary people in a place together, more conscious of God than of one… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
