Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Possibly, what is required of some of us, and chiefly of me, is a solitary and personal response in the form of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
May we all grow in grace and peace and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If we have not silence, God is not heard in our music. If we have no rest God, does not bless our… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
One might say I have decided to marry the silence of the forest. The sweet dark warmth of the whole world will… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. For… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“For language to have meaning there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Pardon all runners, All speechless, alien winds, All mad waters. Pardon their impulses, Their wild attitudes, Their young flights, their reticence. When… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“It is not speaking that breaks our silence, but the anxiety to be heard. The words of the proud man impose silence… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“He is heard only when we hope to hear Him, and if, thinking our hope to be fulfilled, we cease to speak,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Are they moved by a sense of human need for silence, for reflection, for inner seeking? So they want to get away… — 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… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Action and Non-Action The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Syrian monk, Isaac of Niniveh: Many are avidly seeking but they alone find who remain in continual silence. … Every man who… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child may have imagination, originality, a… — 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 reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being. Between the silence of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
One opens the inner doors of one's heart to the infinite silences of the Spirit, out of whose abysses love wells up… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In a world of noise, confusion and conflict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline and peace. In… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We thank Him less by words than by the serene happiness of silent acceptance. It is our emptiness in the presence of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“I should be able to return to solitude each time as to the place I have never described to anybody, as the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Not only does silence give us a chance to understand ourselves better, to get a truer and more balanced perspective on our… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains… — thomas merton Copy Share Image
The silence of the forest is my bride and the sweet dark warmth of the whole world is my love, and out… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I suppose what makes me most glad is that we all recognize each other in this metaphysical space of silence and happening,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To be alone by being part of the universe-fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
My own personal task is not simply that of poet and writer (still less commentator, pseudo-prophet); it is basically to praise God… — 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
