For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to regulate the whole of life by the eternal law… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The real reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even a God can… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reason and analysis but first of all… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
True happiness is not found in any other reward than that of being united with God. If I seek some other reward… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For the ones who are called saints by human opinion on earth may very well be devils, and their light may very… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in… — 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
Who is willing to be satisfied with a job that expresses all his limitations? He will accept such work only as a… — 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
“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
For the birds there is not a time that they tell, but the point vierge between darkness and light, between being and… — 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
Day after day I read Freud, thinking myself to be very enlightened and scientific when, as a matter of fact, I was… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“No matter how much the original Rule of St. Francis has changed, I think his spirit and his inspiration are still the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In any case, his religious teaching consisted mostly in more or less vague ethical remarks, an obscure mixture of ideals of English… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There are days when I am convinced that Heaven starts already, now, in this ordinary life just as it is, in all… — 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
Therefore, doing the Stations of the Cross was still more laborious than consoling, and required a sacrifice. It was much the same… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We live on the brink of disaster because we do not know how to let life alone. We do not respect the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The fruitfulness of our lives depends in large measure in our ability to doubt our own words and to question the value… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The Hindus are not looking for us to send them men who will build schools and hospitals, although those things are good… — 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
The only thing to seek in contemplative prayer is God; and we seek Him successfully when we realize that we cannot find… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. If modern people were a… — 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… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are travelling and in darkness.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not… — 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
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
His justice is the love that gives to each one of His creatures the gifts that His mercy has previously decreed. And… — 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
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
“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
