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Them Quotes by Thomas Merton
- The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to be open. In…
- It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as Gods will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food…
- The things I thought were so important -- because of the effort I put into them -- have turned out to be of small value.…
- In general, it can be said that no contemplative life is possible without ascetic self-discipline. One must learn to survive without the habit-forming luxuries which…
- The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear…
- It is by the Holy Spirit that we love those who are united to us in Christ. The more plentifully we have received of the…
- The only trouble is that in the spiritual life there are no tricks and no shortcuts. Those who imagine that they can discover spiritual gimmicks…
- Nonviolence seeks to ‘win’ not by destroying or even by humiliating the adversary, but by convincing [the adversary] that there is a higher and more…
- Therefore, doing the Stations of the Cross was still more laborious than consoling, and required a sacrifice. It was much the same with all my…
- The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we…
- I am willing to admit that some people might live there for years, or even a lifetime, so protected that they never sense the sweet…
- Imagination has the creative task of making symbols, joining things together in such a way that they throw new light on each other and on…
- Sincerity must be bought at a price: the humility to recognize our innumerable errors, and fidelity in tirelessly setting them right.
- One of the strange laws of the contemplative life is that in it you do not sit down and solve problems: you bear with them…
- Our minds are like crows. They pick up everything that glitters, no matter how uncomfortable our nests get with all that metal in them.
- Weaknesses and deficiencies . . . play a most important part in all our lives. It is because of them that we need others and…
- What does it mean to know and experience my own “nothingness?” It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my illusions and faults…
- Hurry ruins saints as well as artists. They want quick success, and they are in such a hurry to get it that they cannot take…
- The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence. Zen suggests that…
- Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one is…
- You must realize that it is the ordinary way of God's dealings with us that our ideas do not work out speedily and efficiently as…
- Creation was given to people as a clean window through which the light of God could shine into people's souls. Sun and moon, night and…
- The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we…
- Merely to resist evil with evil by hating those who hate us and seeking to destroy them, is actually no resistance at all. It is…
- If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and you…
More Ways to Read Them Quotes by Thomas Merton
More Them Quotes
- Poets are the only people to whom love is not only a crucial, but an indispensable experience, which entitles them to mistake… — Hannah Arendt
- A high heart ought to bear calamities and not flee them, since in bearing them appears the grandeur of the mind and… — Pietro Aretino
- If you want to annoy your neighbors, tell the truth about them. — Pietro Aretino
- Flattery and deceit are the darlings of great men, and so with these men spread the butter on thick, if you want… — Pietro Aretino
- As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris, waiting to be rescued. When we think of… — Jean-Bertrand Aristide
- Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those… — Aristotle
- In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of… — Aristotle
- Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes… — Aristotle
- Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms. — Aristotle
- Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them. — Aristotle
- Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit. — Aristotle
- Stories surge up out of nowhere, and if they feel compelling, you follow them. You let them unfold inside you and see… — Paul Auster