Text Scrutinized Quotes 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…

— Thomas Merton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love winter when the plant says nothing.

— Thomas Merton

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

“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