Thomas Merton Quotes - Page 6

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• Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Worry

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.13, Shambhala Publications

  17 Copy quote

• To hope is to risk frustration. Make up your mind to risk frustration.

  Thomas Merton

  Frustration, Risk, Mind

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.104, New Directions Publishing

  12 Copy quote

• We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of others and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us.

  Thomas Merton

  Forgiveness, Hate, Compassion

  55 Copy quote

• The simplest and most effective way to sanctity is to disappear into the background of ordinary every day routine.

  Thomas Merton

  Ordinary, Routine, Way

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.47, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  8 Copy quote

• There were only a few shepherds at the first Bethlehem. The ox and the donkey understood more of the first Christmas than the high priests in Jerusalem. And it is the same today.

  Thomas Merton

  Christmas, Shepherds, Jerusalem

  "Evangelical Sunday School Lesson Commentary 2013-2014". Book by Lance Colkmire, p. 164, January 5, 2012.

  48 Copy quote

• Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God.

  Thomas Merton

  Art, Artist, Soul

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.36, Shambhala Publications

  10 Copy quote

• And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. it is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Communication, Levels

  "The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters".

  17 Copy quote

• If we wait for some people to become agreeable or attractive before we begin to love them, we will never begin. If we are content to give them a cold impersonal 'charity' that is merely a matter of obligation, we will not trouble to understand them or to sympathize with them at all. And in that case we will not really love them, because love implies an efficacious will not only to do good to others exteriorly but also to find some good in them to which we can respond."

  Thomas Merton

  People, Giving, Waiting

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.179, Shambhala Publications

  30 Copy quote

• We cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great.

  Thomas Merton

  Greatness, Achieve, Interest

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.128, Shambhala Publications

  35 Copy quote

• There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. This mysterious unity and integrity is wisdom, the mother of us all, "natura naturans." There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fountain of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness, and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being.

  Thomas Merton

  Mother, Nature, Integrity

  65 Copy quote

• If it so happened that I had once written a best-seller, this was a pure accident, due to inattention and naivete, and I would take very good care never to do the same again. If I had a message for my contemporaries, I said, it was surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success.

  Thomas Merton

  Cost, Care, Shapes

  Thomas Merton (2002). “Seeds”

  68 Copy quote

• I came with the notion of perhaps saying something for monks and to monks of all religions because I am supposed to be a monk. ... My dear brothers, WE ARE ALREADY ONE. BUT WE IMAGINE THAT WE ARE NOT. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are

  Thomas Merton

  Brother, Unity, Imagine

  16 Copy quote

• Do not be one of those who, rather than risk failure, never attempts anything.

  Thomas Merton

  Risk

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.104, New Directions Publishing

  13 Copy quote

• Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.

  Thomas Merton

  Love, Valentines Day, Care

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.3, Shambhala Publications

  19 Copy quote

• Humility is the surest sign of strength.

  Thomas Merton

  Humility

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.190, New Directions Publishing

  11 Copy quote

• I am against war, against violence, against violent revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences, for nonviolent but nevertheless radical changes. Change is needed, and violence will not really change anything: at most it will only transfer power from one set of bull-headed authorities to another.

  Thomas Merton

  Peace, War, Differences

  26 Copy quote

• It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, now I realize what we all are . If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth This little point is the pure glory of God in us. It is in everybody.

  Thomas Merton

  Fall, Destiny, Race

  28 Copy quote

• Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Silence, Sound

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.134, Shambhala Publications

  9 Copy quote

• A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found: for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy.

  Thomas Merton

  Happiness, Enough, Bigs

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.1, Shambhala Publications

  36 Copy quote

• The only thing to seek in contemplative prayer is God; and we seek Him successfully when we realize that we cannot find Him unless He shows Himself to us, and yet at the same time that He would not have inspired us to seek Him unless we had already found Him.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Prayer, Inspired

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.61, Macmillan

  24 Copy quote

• Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Self, Cherish

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.34, New Directions Publishing

  32 Copy quote

• My spiritual goal is to one day walk into God and disappear.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Goal, One Day

  13 Copy quote

• We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Prayer, Beginners

  "Contemplative Prayer".

  12 Copy quote

• 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 the violence of our times.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Peace, Demand

  11 Copy quote

• In an age where there is much talk about "being yourself," I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else.

  Thomas Merton

  Being Yourself, Age, Littles

  Thomas Merton (1974). “A Thomas Merton Reader”, Image

  20 Copy quote

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