It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God. — Thomas Merton Christian Copy Share Image
“It is not possible to be intimate with more than very few, because there are only very few in the world with… — Thomas Merton Intimate Copy Share Image
There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by nonviolent methods most easily succumbs; activism… — Thomas Merton Activism Copy Share Image
There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues. — Thomas Merton Contemplative Copy Share Image
People have no idea what one saint can do: for sanctity is stronger than the whole of hell. — Thomas Merton Hell Copy Share Image
Today the artist has inherited the combined functions of hermit, pilgrim, prophet, priest, shaman, sorcerer, soothsayer, alchemist. — Thomas Merton Alchemist Copy Share Image
We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves. — Thomas Merton Choice Copy Share Image
I myself am part of the weather and part of the climate and part of the place … It is certainly part… — Thomas Merton Climate 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 Biology Copy Share Image
Surrender your own poverty and acknowledge your nothingness to the Lord. Whether you understand it or not, God loves you, is present… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to… — Thomas Merton Autonomy Copy Share Image
Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if we only… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Nevertheless, the liturgy of Ash Wednesday is not focussed on the sinfulness of the penitent but on the mercy of God. The… — Thomas Merton Ash wednesday Copy Share Image
If we examine ourselves carefully we shall see most of us have an enormous amount of unfinished business...We have to be free… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
This is the greatest stumbling block in our spiritual discipline, which, in actuality, consists not in getting rid of the self but… — Thomas Merton Actuality Copy Share Image
I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. The "sanity" of modern man… — Thomas Merton Absurdity Copy Share Image
You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again, "Solitude, solitude."… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Hui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu: “All your teaching is centered on what has no use.” Chuang replied: “If you have no… — Thomas Merton Education Copy Share Image
“My opinion is that it is a very extraordinary thing for anyone to be upset by such a topic. Why should anyone… — Thomas Merton Compassion 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
“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
Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments. — Thomas Merton Advertising Copy Share Image
The sacred attitude is, then, one of deep and fundamental respect for the real in whatever new form it may present itself. — Thomas Merton Attitude Copy Share Image
The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin, but those that offer us great evils masking as… — Thomas Merton Consent Copy Share Image
The man who sweats under his mask, whose role makes him itch with discomfort, who hates the division in himself, is already… — Thomas Merton Discomfort Copy Share Image
“There is in every intellect a natural exigency for a true concept of God: we are born with the thirst to know… — Thomas Merton God Copy Share Image
The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to… — Thomas Merton Love Copy Share Image
“A man becomes a saint not by conviction that he is better than sinners but by the realization that he is one… — Thomas Merton Compassion Copy Share Image
True encounter with Christ liberates something within us, a power we did not know we had, a capacity to grow and change. — 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
If you want to have a spiritual life you must unify your life. A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of… — Thomas Merton Care Copy Share Image
How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city? — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Grains of error planted innocently in a well-kept greenhouse can become giant poisonous trees. — 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
Those who think they 'know' from the beginning will never in fact come to know anything. — Thomas Merton Birth Copy Share Image
The evil in the world is all of our own making, and it proceeds entirely from our ruthless, senseless, wasteful, destructive, and… — Thomas Merton 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)
