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 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
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
“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 vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own… — 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
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
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 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
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 wise man has struggled to find You in his wisdom, and he has failed. The just man has striven to grasp… — 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
I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. it is beyond words, and it is beyond… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The secret of my full identity is hidden in Him. He alone can make me who I am, or rather who I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Today the artist has inherited the combined functions of hermit, pilgrim, prophet, priest, shaman, sorcerer, soothsayer, alchemist. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
God has left sin in the world in order that there may be forgiveness: not only the secret forgiveness by which He… — 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
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
Because You have called me here not to wear a label by which I can recognize myself and place myself in some… — 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
