Thomas Merton Quotes

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• In a world of noise, confusion and conflict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline and peace. In such places love can blossom.

  Thomas Merton

  Discipline, Confusion, Silence

  164 Copy quote

• Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.

  Thomas Merton

  Love, Spiritual, Wisdom

  Thomas Merton (1976). “The Power and Meaning of Love”

  238 Copy quote

• 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 love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

  Thomas Merton

  Relationship, Spiritual, Inspirational Love

  313 Copy quote

• You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

  Thomas Merton

  Moving On, Faith, Courage

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.206, Image

  261 Copy quote
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  The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Emotional, Mind

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.72, Image

  182 Copy quote

• My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your Will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

  Thomas Merton

  Faith, Believe, Inspiration

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Dialogues with Silence: Prayers & Drawings”, p.8, Harper Collins

  344 Copy quote

• To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.

  Thomas Merton

  Faith, Gratitude, Grateful

  181 Copy quote

• Nothing has ever been said about God that hasn't already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.

  Thomas Merton

  Wind, Tree, Forests

  106 Copy quote

• The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activity neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

  Thomas Merton

  Roots, Demand, Want

  90 Copy quote

• In Silence God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.

  Thomas Merton

  Silence, Objects, Cease

  104 Copy quote

• People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

  Thomas Merton

  Wall, Climbing, People

  150 Copy quote

• When you see God in everyone, then they see God in you.

  Thomas Merton

  Grace

  49 Copy quote

• The meaning of life is found in openness to being and "being present" in full awareness.

  Thomas Merton

  Life, Awareness, Found

  Thomas Merton (2010). “Zen and the Birds of Appetite”, p.81, New Directions Publishing

  10 Copy quote

• The purpose of our lives is to find the purpose of our lives.

  Thomas Merton

  Purpose, Life Is, Our Lives

  34 Copy quote

• Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.

  Thomas Merton

  Nice, Simple, Meditation

  20 Copy quote

• Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us and see the beauty in ordinary things.

  Thomas Merton

  Ordinary, Alive, Ordinary Things

  44 Copy quote

• A faith that is afraid of other people is no faith at all.

  Thomas Merton

  People

  "Seeds".

  63 Copy quote

• Our real journey in life is interior.

  Thomas Merton

  Real, Journey, Conformity

  Thomas Merton (1975). “The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton”, p.296, New Directions Publishing

  18 Copy quote

• Actions are the doors and windows of being. Unless we act, we have no way of knowing what we are.

  Thomas Merton

  Doors, Knowing, Way

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.136, Macmillan

  32 Copy quote

• The sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is all in all.

  Thomas Merton

  Prayer, Wind, Sky

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.107, Macmillan

  19 Copy quote

• You are made in the image of what you desire.

  Thomas Merton

  Desire, Spiritual Awakening, Made

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.64, Macmillan

  72 Copy quote

• Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and joy you have not yet begun to live.

  Thomas Merton

  Journey, Differences, Joy

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, New Directions Publishing

  73 Copy quote

• The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Firsts, Life Is

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.52, Macmillan

  97 Copy quote

• I see no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity ... I intend to become as good a Buddhist as I can.

  Thomas Merton

  Buddhist, Buddhism, Christianity

  57 Copy quote

• For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Destiny, Want

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.138, Shambhala Publications

  77 Copy quote

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