In the devil's theology, the important thing is to be absolutely right and to prove that everybody else is absolutely wrong. — Thomas Merton Devil Copy Share Image
A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found: for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else… — Thomas Merton Beginners Copy Share Image
Humility sets us free to do what is really good, by showing us our illusions and withdrawing our will from what was… — Thomas Merton Humility Copy Share Image
“The whole of life is to spiritualize our activities by humility and faith, to silence our nature by charity.” — Thomas Merton Faith Copy Share Image
Our destiny is to live out what we think, because unless we live what we know, we do not even know it. — Thomas Merton Destiny Copy Share Image
Self-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves. For no one can give up what he… — Thomas Merton Awareness Copy Share Image
“The religious answer is not really religious if it's not fully real. Evasion is the answer of superstition.” — Thomas Merton Religion Copy Share Image
Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self… — Thomas Merton Contemplation Copy Share Image
Grace is not a strange, magic substance which is subtly filtered into our souls to act as a kind of spiritual penicillin.… — Thomas Merton Grace Copy Share Image
The whole world has risen in Christ... If God is 'all in all,' then everything is in fact paradise, because it is… — Thomas Merton Christ Copy Share Image
Curiously, the most serious religious people, or the most concerned scholars, those who constantly read the Bible as a matter of professional… — Thomas Merton Bible Copy Share Image
Life consists in learning to live on one's own, spontaneous, freewheeling: to do this one must recognize what is one's own-be familiar… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we… — 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… — Thomas Merton Anguish 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 Bread Copy Share Image
When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The friends of Job appear on the scene as advisers and "consolers," offering Job the fruits of their moral scientia. But when… — 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,… — Thomas Merton Contemplation Copy Share Image
“Nothing could be more alien to contemplation than the cogito ergo sum of Descartes. “I think, therefore I am.” This is the… — Thomas Merton Life Copy Share Image
If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Perfect Joy (excerpts) Is there to be found on earth a fullness of joy, or is there no such thing? . .… — Thomas Merton Attaining happiness Copy Share Image
Contradictions have always existed in the soul of [individuals]. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become… — Thomas Merton Analysis Copy Share Image
“Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married… — Thomas Merton Contemplation Copy Share Image
How deluded we sometimes are by the clear notions we get out of books. They make us think that we really understand… — Thomas Merton Book 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 Communication Copy Share Image
This is the crucifixion of Christ: in which He dies again and again in the individuals who were made to share the… — Thomas Merton Christ Copy Share Image
The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the wind, and join in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You… — Thomas Merton Penance Copy Share Image
The degradation of the sense of symbol in modern society is one of its many signs of spiritual decay. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Love in fact is the spiritual life, and without it all the other exercises of the spirit, however lofty, are emptied of… — Thomas Merton Exercise Copy Share Image
Modern man believes he is fruitful and productive when his ego is aggressively affirmed, when he is visibly active, and when his… — Thomas Merton Action Copy Share Image
“Ask me not where I live or what I like to eat . . . Ask me what I am living for… — Thomas Merton Life Copy Share Image
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
“No one can find God without having first been found by Him. A monk is a man who seeks God because he… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
There should be at least a room or some corner where no one will find you and disturb you or notice you. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The opposite of sloth is not 'activity' or industriousness in a business sense. It is fortitude - including patience and long-suffering.” — Thomas Merton Business Copy Share Image
The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to… — 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 Depth Copy Share Image
![“Contradictions have always existed in the soul of [individuals]. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and…” quote by Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ee9/thomas-merton-231_analysis_contradictions-have-always-existed-in-th_1336538.jpg)
