The only right way: to love and serve the man of the modern world, but not simply to succumb, with him, to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Actions are the doors and windows of being. Unless we act, we have no way of knowing what we are. — 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
The simplest and most effective way to sanctity is to disappear into the background of ordinary every day routine. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Prayer is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him...who loves us, who is near… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The real hope is not in something we think we can do, but in God, who is making something good out of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The logic of the poet - that is, the logic of language or the experience itself - develops the way a living… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I can depend less and less on my own power and sense of direction...It is so strange to advance backwards and get… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The humble person receives praise the way a clean window takes the light of the sun. The truer and more intense the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The Lord did not create suffering. Pain and death came into the world with the fall of man. But after man had… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
None of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for this is only another subtle way of trying to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Ultimately faith is the only key to the universe. The final meaning of human existence, and the answers to the questions on… — 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
The land which thou goest to possess is not like the land of Egypt from whence thou camest out... For my thoughts… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The basic problem is not political, it is apolitical and human. One of the most important things to do is to keep… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
You must realize that it is the ordinary way of God's dealings with us that our ideas do not work out speedily… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By "they" I mean the… — 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
We who claim to love peace and justice must always be careful that we do not use our righteousness to provoke the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Living is not thinking. Thought is formed and guided by objective reality outside us. Living is the constant adjustment of thought to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may mean? I myself… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
They were in the world and not of it--not because they were saints, but in a different way: because they were artists.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Cupidity...takes created things for ends in themselves, which they are not. The will that seeks rest in creatures for their own sake… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Very well, then: why are you attached to any one book, or to the words and ways of one saint when he… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever… — 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
It is a kind of pride to insist that none of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The question of love is one that cannot be evaded. Whether or not you claim to be interested in it from the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I just remember their kindness and goodness to me, and their peacefulness and their utter simplicity. They inspired real reverence, and I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Imagination has the creative task of making symbols, joining things together in such a way that they throw new light on each… — 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
