Bottom Quote by Thomas Merton

“The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction, from immersion in the common, the nondescript, the trivial, the sordid, the evanescent.” quote by Thomas Merton — Download Open image

“The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction, from immersion in the common, the nondescript, the trivial, the sordid, the evanescent.”

Thomas Merton

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 3.6 out of 5 (10 ratings)

Bottom Common Confusion Identity Immersion Inner self Jewels Sea Self

More by Thomas Merton

“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude of the contemplative experience awakens a tragic anguish and opens many questions in the depths of the heart like wounds that cannot stop bleeding. For every gain in deep certitude there is a corresponding growth of…

Thomas Merton

If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness. Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence. Since God cannot be imagined, anything our imagination tells…

Thomas Merton

It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the soul. It is the only…

Thomas Merton

We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human…

Thomas Merton

Image

The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the…

Thomas Merton

Image

To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a…

Thomas Merton

Image

The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of…

Thomas Merton

Image

Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in…

Thomas Merton

Image

Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one…

Thomas Merton

Image

Love winter when the plant says nothing.

Thomas Merton

Image

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of…

Thomas Merton

Image

“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of…

Thomas Merton

Image

Explore all 851 Thomas Merton quotes

More Bottom quotes

The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom - whether black or white…

Thomas Sowell

Image

Filmmaking, like sex, isn't a polite enterprise. It involves a lot of mess and the bottom line is, if somebody ain't screaming, you're not…

James Woods

Image

I was terrible student. I was capable, but I never like being told what to do, so I was always in the bottom class at school. In Australia, a lot of students study to the end of year 10, but don't go on to the final year, and I was asked to leave the school because they just thought I…

Chris Lilley

The contempt for law and the contempt for the human consequences of lawbreaking go from the bottom to the top of American society.

Margaret Mead

Image

I plead with my Moonlight fans to give this show a chance if they let me give it a chance. I can’t do Moonlight…

Alex O'Loughlin

Image

Well, the bottom line is that I'm extremely pleased with 'The Stupids.' I'm pleased that it's coming out, and it should look good. It's…

John Landis

Image

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you…

Og Mandino

I would have had a clause in my contract; I would've definitely put some fine print in my contract that said, "If the president…

Joe Budden

Image

Of course the Dharma-body of the Buddha was the hedge at the bottom of the garden. At the same time, and no less obviously,…

Aldous Huxley

Image

When I hit bottom, I can attack the problem and get to where I want to be.

Dennis Rodman

Image

If I had lost the popular vote but won the electoral college and in my first day as president the intelligence community came to me and said, "The Russians influenced the election," I would've never stood for it. Even though it might've advantaged me, I would've said, "We've got to get to the bottom of this." I would've set up…

Hillary Clinton