Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Consequently, the truth of God lives in our souls more by the power of superior moral courage than by the light of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The truth is, that the concept of God which I had always entertained, and which I had accused Christians of teaching to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man's life, to get behind the façade of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Our technological society has no longer any place in it for wisdom that seeks truth for its own sake, that seeks the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The truth never becomes clear as long as we assume that each one of us, individually, is the center of the universe. — 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… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To those who have no personal experience of this revolutionary aspect of Christian truth, but who see only the outer crust of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“For whatever is demanded by truth, by justice, by mercy, or by love must surely be taken to be willed by God.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We cannot possess the truth fully until it has entered into the very substance of our life by good habits, and by… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Sincerity must be bought at a price: the humility to recognize our innumerable errors, and fidelity in tirelessly setting them right. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by illusion, a point of pure truth, a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It seems to me that the darkness that has troubled you ... comes from one very serious source. Without wanting to be… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The light of truth burns without a flicker in the depths of a house that is shaken with storms of passion and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, now I realize what we all are . If… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“We know by fresh discovery, the deep reality that is our concrete existence here and now and in the depths of that… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The truth that many people never understand is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more your suffer, because smaller… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“When the light of God's truth begins to find its way through the mists of illusion and self-deception with which we have… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“...only God's truth without limit, without defect, without stain. This clean light, which tastes of Paradise, is beyond all pride, beyond comment,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I would call the attention of the reader to the difference between "reason" and "reasoning." Reason is a light, reasoning a process.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The truth that many people never understand until it is too late is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To be truly Catholic is not merely to be correct according to an abstractly universal standard of truth, but also and above… — 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