Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more. — Thomas Merton Facts Copy Share Image
The man of faith who has never experienced doubt is not a man of faith. — Thomas Merton Doubt Copy Share Image
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. — Thomas Merton Earth Copy Share Image
The closer we are to God, the closer we are to those who are close to him. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
While some men see ordinary happenings, others see divine light and guidance. — Thomas Merton Divine Copy Share Image
If we seek paradise outside ourselves, we cannot have paradise in our hearts. — Thomas Merton Being alone Copy Share Image
I brought all the instincts of a writer with me into the monastery. — Thomas Merton Instincts Copy Share Image
“Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.” — Thomas Merton Life Copy Share Image
When you reread your journal you find out that your newest discovery is something you already found out five years ago. — Thomas Merton Discovery Copy Share Image
Good moral actions are not enough. Everything in us, from the very depths, must be cleansed and reordered... — Thomas Merton Action Copy Share Image
You pray best when the mirror of your soul is empty of every image except the Image of the Invisible Father. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“True solitude is the home of the person, false solitude the refuge of the individualist.” — Thomas Merton Identity Copy Share Image
“If we enter into ourselves, find our true self, and then pass beyond the inner "I", we sail forth into the immense… — Thomas Merton Darkness Copy Share Image
What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? — Thomas Merton Abyss Copy Share Image
The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that… — Thomas Merton Angel 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
What do you want to want to be, anyway?" "I don't know; I guess what I want to be is a good… — Thomas Merton Catholic Copy Share Image
“As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to… — 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
“We are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to 'like' one another. Love governs the will: 'liking' is… — Thomas Merton Duty Copy Share Image
“Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering,… — Thomas Merton Suffering Copy Share Image
Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being. Between the silence of… — Thomas Merton Aging Copy Share Image
The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Bodily agitation, then, is an enemy to the spirit. And by agitation I do not necessarily mean exercise or movement. There is… — Thomas Merton Agitation Copy Share Image
“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 Eden Copy Share Image
My own personal task is not simply that of poet and writer (still less commentator, pseudo-prophet); it is basically to praise God… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us. — Thomas Merton Discovers Copy Share Image
We stumble and fall constantly, even when we are most enlightened. — Thomas Merton Courage Copy Share Image
Power always protects the good of some at the expense of all others. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism. — Thomas Merton Materialism Copy Share Image
“The only One Who can teach me to find God is God, Himself, Alone.” — Thomas Merton God Copy Share Image
God has brought me to Kentucky...the precise place he has chosen for my sanctification. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
