a man can radically change his life and attain to a deeper meaning, a more perfect integration, a more complete fulfillment, a… — 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
“I had learned from my own father that it was almost blasphemy to regard the function of art as merely to reproduce… — Thomas Merton Adventure Copy Share Image
We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. God manifests Himself… — Thomas Merton Awe Copy Share Image
We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the… — Thomas Merton Desire Copy Share Image
This act of total surrender is not merely a fantastic intellectual and mystical gamble; it is something much more serious. It is… — Thomas Merton Acts of love 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 Art Copy Share Image
If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. For… — Thomas Merton Action Copy Share Image
“One of the effects of original sin is an instinctive prejudice in favour of our own selfish desires. We see things as… — Thomas Merton Grace Copy Share Image
“Such a view of the divine will drives human weakness to despair and one wonders if it is not, itself, often the… — Thomas Merton Contemplation Copy Share Image
“In all the situations of life the “will of God” comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law… — Thomas Merton Life Copy Share Image
“I did not even know who Christ was, that He was God. I had not the faintest idea that there existed such… — Thomas Merton Blessed sacrament Copy Share Image
“God bridges the infinite distances between Himself and the spirits created to love Him, by supernatural missions of His own life. The… — Thomas Merton Father Copy Share Image
“It is therefore of supreme importance that we consent to live not for ourselves but for others. When we do this we… — Thomas Merton Acceptance Copy Share Image
“All one night we sat, with a friend of his, in a big dark roadhouse outside of Philadelphia, arguing and arguing about… — Thomas Merton Dreams Copy Share Image
In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying ourselves in the mirror of… — Thomas Merton Futility Copy Share Image
“For language to have meaning there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He… — Thomas Merton Language Copy Share Image
Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as Gods will when you yourself have warm clothes and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
My life is ... a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though 1 were led by the hand… — Thomas Merton Action Copy Share Image
“The Christian solitary does not seek solitude merely as an atmosphere or as a setting for a special and exalted spirituality. Not… — Thomas Merton Solitude 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 Business Copy Share Image
If we live with possibilities we are exiles from the present which is given us by God to be our own, homeless… — Thomas Merton Exile Copy Share Image
Our real journey in life is interior; It is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the… — Thomas Merton Action Copy Share Image
Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that… — Thomas Merton Desire Copy Share Image
“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 Communication 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 Acting Copy Share Image
It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I… — Thomas Merton Affection Copy Share Image
Detachment from things does not mean setting up a contradiction between 'things' and 'God' as if God were another thing and as… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The simplicity that all this presupposes is not easy to attain. I find that my life constantly threatens to become complex and… — Thomas Merton Asceticism Copy Share Image
The selfishness of an age that has devoted itself to the mere cult of pleasure has tainted the whole human race with… — Thomas Merton Age Copy Share Image
“All things are yours and you are Christ’s—and Christ is God’s. If we live, we live unto God. If we die, we… — Thomas Merton Live or die Copy Share Image
“If these seeds would take root in my liberty, and if His will would grow from my freedom, I would become the… — Thomas Merton Freedom Copy Share Image
“We have been fashioned, in all our perfection, each according to his own nature, and all our natures ordered and harmonized together,… — Thomas Merton Love Copy Share Image
As long as I am content to know that He is infinitely greater than I, and that I cannot know Him unless… — 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… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The whole function of the life of prayer is, then, to enlighten and strengthen our conscience so that it not only knows… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Are they moved by a sense of human need for silence, for reflection, for inner seeking? So they want to get away… — Thomas Merton Blessed Copy Share Image
Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to… — Thomas Merton Conscience Copy Share Image
