Thomas Merton

The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a…

— Thomas Merton

I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism,…

— Thomas Merton

A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying…

— Thomas Merton

The whole aim of Zen is not to make foolproof statements about experience, but to come to direct grips with reality without…

— Thomas Merton

And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. it is beyond words, and it is beyond…

— Thomas Merton

The simplicity that all this presupposes is not easy to attain. I find that my life constantly threatens to become complex and…

— Thomas Merton

The secret of my full identity is hidden in Him. He alone can make me who I am, or rather who I…

— Thomas Merton

The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves.

— Thomas Merton

“To allow oneself to be carried away By a multitude of conflicting concerns, To surrender to too many demands, ...To commit oneself…

— Thomas Merton

But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I…

— Thomas Merton

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?

— Thomas Merton

“All one night we sat, with a friend of his, in a big dark roadhouse outside of Philadelphia, arguing and arguing about…

— Thomas Merton

First, the desert is the country of madness. Second, it is the refuge of the devil, thrown out into the "wilderness of…

— Thomas Merton

“New eyes awaken. I send Love's name into the world with wings And songs grow up around me like a jungle. Choirs…

— Thomas Merton

“Most of the world is either asleep or dead. The religious people are, for the most part, asleep. The irreligious are dead.…

— Thomas Merton

“Happiness consists in finding out precisely what the "one thing necessary" may be, in our lives, and in gladly relinquishing all the…

— Thomas Merton

It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God.

— Thomas Merton

I cannot make the universe obey me. I cannot make other people conform to my own whims and fancies. I cannot make…

— Thomas Merton

The basic problem is not political, it is apolitical and human. One of the most important things to do is to keep…

— Thomas Merton

Love is the door to eternity.

— Thomas Merton

“The ever-changing reality in the midst of which we live should awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue with God.…

— Thomas Merton

The logic of the poet - that is, the logic of language or the experience itself - develops the way a living…

— Thomas Merton

Contemplation in the age of Auschwitz and Dachau, Solovky and Karaganda is something darker and more fearsome than contemplation in the age…

— Thomas Merton

Some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do…

— Thomas Merton

“There is, in a word, nothing comfortable about the Bible...”

— Thomas Merton