Thomas Merton Quotes - Page 24

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The art of our time, sacred art included, will necessarily be characterized by a certain poverty, grimness and roughness which correspond to the violent realities of a cruel age.

Thomas Merton

Art, Reality, Age

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The only influence that can really upset the injustice and iniquity of men is the power that breathes in the Christian tradition, renewing our participation in the Life that is the Light of men.

Thomas Merton

Christian, Men, Light

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.144, New Directions Publishing

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There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by nonviolent methods most easily succumbs; activism and overwork.

Thomas Merton

Fighting, Violence, Form

Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.81, Image

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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 get such a hold on men today. I do not say that to be a contemplative one absolutely has to go without smoking or without alcohol, but certainly one must be able to use these things without being dominated by an uncontrolled need for them.

Thomas Merton

Men, Contemplative Life, Self

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.86, New Directions Publishing

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They were in the world and not of it--not because they were saints, but in a different way: because they were artists. The integrity of an artist lifts a man above the level of the world without delivering him from it.

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, Integrity, Artist

Thomas Merton, M. Basil Pennington (2005). “Thomas Merton: I Have Seen what I was Looking for : Selected Spiritual Writings”, p.22, New City Press

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Nevertheless, the liturgy of Ash Wednesday is not focussed on the sinfulness of the penitent but on the mercy of God. The question of sinfulness is raised precisely because this is a day of mercy, and the just do not need a savior.

Thomas Merton

Mercy Of God, Needs, Ashes

Thomas Merton (1976). “Meditations on liturgy”

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Show us your Christ, Lady, after this our exile, yes: but show Him to us also now, show Him to us here, while we are still wanderers.

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, Christ, Exile

Thomas Merton, M. Basil Pennington (2005). “Thomas Merton: I Have Seen what I was Looking for : Selected Spiritual Writings”, p.58, New City Press

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A gentle sense of humor will be alert to detect anything that savors of a pious 'act' on the part of the penitent.

Thomas Merton

Sense Of Humor, Gentle, Theologian

Thomas Merton (1960). “Spiritual Direction and Meditation”, p.40, Liturgical Press

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Lovely morning! How lovely life can be!

Thomas Merton

Morning, Lovely, Lovely Life

Thomas Merton (2010). “The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey”, p.34, Harper Collins

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The most awful tyranny is that of the proximate Utopia where the last sins are currently being eliminated and where, tomorrow, there will be no more sins because all the sinners will have been wiped out.

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, Awful, Lasts

Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton (1965). “Gandhi on Non-violence”, p.14, New Directions Publishing

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Are they moved by a sense of human need for silence, for reflection, for inner seeking? So they want to get away from the noise and tension of modern life, at least for a little while, in order to relax their minds and wills and seek a blessed healing sense of inner unity, reconciliation, integration?

Thomas Merton

Blessed, Healing, Reflection

Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.44, Macmillan

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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 stench of corruption that is all around them - the keen, thin scent of decay that pervades everything and accuses with a terrible accusation the superficial youthfulness, the abounding undergraduate noise, that fills those ancient buildings.

Thomas Merton

Sweet, College, Years

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.156, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child may have imagination, originality, a simple and individual response to reality, and even a tendency to moments of thoughtful silence and absorption. All these tendencies, however, are soon destroyed by the dominant culture. The child becomes a yelling, brash, false little monster, brandishing a toy gun or dressed up like some character he has seen on television.

Thomas Merton

Children, Character, Reality

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You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again, "Solitude, solitude." And You have turned around and thrown the world in my lap. You have told me, "Leave all things and follow me," and then You have tied half of New York to my foot like a ball and chain. You have got me kneeling behind that pillar with my mind making a noise like a bank. Is that contemplation?

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, New York, Feet

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.484, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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For the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self YOU have wanted for me, only the self that I have wanted : And I no longer want this false self. But now, Father, I come to You in your own Son's self ... and it is He Who Presents me to You.

Thomas Merton

Father, Real, Son

Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.82, Macmillan

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And of course most non-Catholics imagine that the Church is immensely rich, and that all Catholic institutions make money hand over fist, and that all the money is stored away somewhere to buy gold and silver dishes for the Pope and cigars for the College of Cardinals.

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, College, Hands

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.81, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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In any case, his religious teaching consisted mostly in more or less vague ethical remarks, an obscure mixture of ideals of English gentlemanliness and his favorite notions of personal hygiene. Everybody knew that his class was liable to degenerate into a demonstration of some practical points about rowing, with Buggy sitting on the table and showing us how to pull an oar.

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, Religious, Teaching

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.106, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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God has brought me to Kentucky...the precise place he has chosen for my sanctification.

Thomas Merton

Kentucky, Chosen, Sanctification

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We must suffer. Our five sense are dulled by inordinate pleasure. Penance makes them keen, gives them back their natural vitality, and more. Penance clears the eye of conscience and of reason. It helps think clearly, judge sanely. It strengthens the action of our will.

Thomas Merton

Eye, Thinking, Giving

"Thoughts in Solitude". Book by Thomas Merton, 1956.

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See, see Who God is, see the glory of God, going up to Him out of this incomprehensible and infinite Sacrifice in which all history begins and ends, all individual lives begin and end, in which every story is told, and finished, and settled for joy or for sorrow: the one point of reference for all the truths that are outside of God, their center, their focus: Love.

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, Sacrifice, Focus

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.380, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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It seems to me that the darkness that has troubled you ... comes from one very serious source. Without wanting to be in conflict with the truth and with the will of God, we are actually going against God's will and His teaching.

Thomas Merton

Teaching, Darkness, Serious

Thomas Merton (1995). “Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis”, p.182, Macmillan

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In the spiritual life there is no such thing as an indifference to love or hate.

Thomas Merton

Love, Spiritual, Hate

Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.47, Macmillan

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Detachment from things does not mean setting up a contradiction between 'things' and 'God' as if God were another thing and as if creatures were His rivals. We do not detach ourselves from things in order to attach ourselves to God, but rather we become detached from ourselves in order to see and use all things in and for God.

Thomas Merton

Spiritual, Mean, Order

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.21, New Directions Publishing

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Zen is consciousness unstructured by particular form or particular system, a trans-cultural, trans-religious, transformed consciousness.

Thomas Merton

Religious, Consciousness, Form

Thomas Merton (2000). “Thoughts On The East”, p.43, A&C Black

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To know the Cross is not merely to know our own sufferings. For the Cross is the sign of salvation, and no man is saved by his own sufferings. To know the Cross is to know that we are saved by the sufferings of Christ; more, it is to know the love of Christ Who underwent suffering and death in order to save us. It is, then, to know Christ.

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, Men, Order

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.92, Shambhala Publications

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Born: January 31, 1915
Died: December 10, 1968
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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