Thomas Merton Quotes - Page 2

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• Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Ideas

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.15, New Directions Publishing

  47 Copy quote

• Every breath we draw is a gift of God's love; every moment of existence is a grace.

  Thomas Merton

  Gratitude, Grace, Moments

  73 Copy quote

• It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.

  Thomas Merton

  Brother, Silence, Solitude

  21 Copy quote

• Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder.

  Thomas Merton

  Thank You, Gratitude, Awakening

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.48, Macmillan

  56 Copy quote

• A man who fails well is greater than one who succeeds badly.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Men, Succeed

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.133, Shambhala Publications

  32 Copy quote

• When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you. It tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your mind is silent, then the forest suddenly becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God.

  Thomas Merton

  Real, Imagination, Silence

  Thomas Merton (1979). “The Sign of Jonas”, Mariner Books

  20 Copy quote

• Here is an unspeakable secret: paradise is all around us and we do not understand.

  Thomas Merton

  Secret, Paradise, Unspeakable

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.128, Image

  33 Copy quote

• How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city?

  Thomas Merton

  Journey, Men, Cities

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.100, New Directions Publishing

  9 Copy quote

• Prayer is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him...who loves us, who is near to us.

  Thomas Merton

  Prayer, Way

  29 Copy quote

• When we are alone on a starlit night, when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children, when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho, we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash - at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the "newness," the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, all these provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.

  Thomas Merton

  Life, Children, Heart

  42 Copy quote

• We are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to "like" one another.

  Thomas Merton

  Best Love, Love One Another, Obliged

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.178, Shambhala Publications

  23 Copy quote

• If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.

  Thomas Merton

  Peace, World, Ifs

  21 Copy quote

• The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the wind, and join in the general Dance.

  Thomas Merton

  Faith, Inspiration, Wind

  23 Copy quote

• 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 key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable. In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and your soul no longer lives for itself or in itself for God: and it is lost and submerged in Him and transformed into Him.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Humility, Keys

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.181, New Directions Publishing

  47 Copy quote

• Action is the stream, and contemplation is the spring.

  Thomas Merton

  Spring, Catholic, Action

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.73, Shambhala Publications

  15 Copy quote

• Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed - but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

  Thomas Merton

  Peace, Hate, War

  247 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

• Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more.

  Thomas Merton

  Faith, Wisdom, Path

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Ascent to Truth”, p.39, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  25 Copy quote

• To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.

  Thomas Merton

  Love, Life, Wisdom

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.60, New Directions Publishing

  53 Copy quote

• ‎"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.

  Thomas Merton

  Jobs, Stopping, Worthy

  Thomas Merton (1976). “Disputed Questions”, p.143, Macmillan

  181 Copy quote

• Our real journey in life is interior; It is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts. Never was it more necessary to respond to that action.

  Thomas Merton

  Real, Heart, Journey

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

  21 Copy quote

• Love is not a matter of getting what you want. Quite the contrary. The insistence on always having what you want, on always being satisfied, on always being fulfilled, makes love impossible.

  Thomas Merton

  Love Is, Making Love, Getting What You Want

  Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.40, Macmillan

  108 Copy quote

• How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me?

  Thomas Merton

  Thinking, Mind, Shadow

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.206, Shambhala Publications

  49 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

  35 Copy quote

• Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things. Even with the best of intentions a spiritual man finds himself exhausted and deadened and debased by the constant noise of machines and loudspeakers, the dead air and the glaring lights of offices and shops, the everlasting suggestion of advertising and propaganda. The whole mechanism of modern life is geared for a flight from God and from the spirit into the wilderness of neurosis.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Men, Thinking

  30 Copy quote

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