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Spirituality Quotes by Thomas Merton

43 Spirituality quotes by Thomas Merton

All Spirituality quotes Thomas Merton’s page

A quiet moment of contemplation feels like a pause inside the mind, a stillness that soothes the soul. He notes that true intimacy needs each person to respect the other's solitude. Technology isn’t opposed to spirituality, but it can be a strong temptation that distracts us.

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If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.

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Every moment and every event of every mans life on earth plants something in his soul.

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Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.

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There is not true intimacy between souls who do not know how to respect one another's solitude.

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Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God.

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Saints are what they are not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it…

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A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by…

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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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No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind…

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Art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order, which it expresses and in some…

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Technology is not in itself opposed to spirituality and to religion. But it presents a great temptation.

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You pray best when the mirror of your soul is empty of every image except the Image of the Invisible Father.

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What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?

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“Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual joy. And…

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This is the greatest stumbling block in our spiritual discipline, which, in actuality, consists not in getting rid of the self but…

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The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we…

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

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Consequently, the truth of God lives in our souls more by the power of superior moral courage than by the light of…

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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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The only true liberty is in the service of that which is beyond all limits, beyond all definitions, beyond all human appreciation:…

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Every moment and every event of everyman's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands…

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

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“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever…

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The soul of man, left to its own natural level, is a potentially lucid crystal left in darkness. It is perfect in…

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“Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married…

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We know when we are following our vocation when our soul is set free from preoccupation with itself and is able to…

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“Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries…

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“Justify my soul, O God, but also from Your fountains fill my will with fire. Shine in my mind, although perhaps this…

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And it is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or comfort our own minds, when…

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The degradation of the sense of symbol in modern society is one of its many signs of spiritual decay.

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The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to…

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Souls are like athletes, that need opponents worthy of them, if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the…

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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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There is a subtle but inescapable connection between the "sacred" attitude and the acceptance of one's in most self.

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The simplest and most effective way to sanctity is to disappear into the background of ordinary every day routine.

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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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If you want to have a spiritual life you must unify your life. A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual…

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The married man and the mother of a Christian family, if they are faithful to their obligations, will fulfill a mission that…

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The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man's life, to get behind the façade of…

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God utters me like a word containing a partial thought of him. A word will never be able to comprehend the voice…

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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…