Thomas Merton Quotes

What I wear is pants. What I do is live. How I pray is breathe.

People are in a hurry to magnify themselves by imitating what is popular- and too lazy to think of anything better.

Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love.

...love triumphs, at least in this life, not by eliminating evil once for all, but by resisting and overcoming it anew every day.

There is a logic of language and a logic of mathematics.

To be a saint is to be yourself.

But precisely this illusion that everything is "clear" is what is blinding us all. It is a serious temptation, and it is a subtle form of pride and worldly love of power and revenge.

There is not true intimacy between souls who do not know how to respect one another's solitude.

I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not ask of me.

The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin, but those that offer us great evils masking as the greatest goods.

The biggest disease in North America is busyness.

The truth never becomes clear as long as we assume that each one of us, individually, is the center of the universe.

The closer we are to God, the closer we are to those who are close to him.

You are certainly one of the joys of life for all who have ever come within a mile of you.

Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.

The peace produced by grace is a spiritual stability too deep for violence — it is unshakeable

For if I am to love truly and freely, I must be able to give something that is truly my own to another. If my heart does not first belong to me, how can I give it to another?

To be ordinary is not a choice: It is the usual freedom of men without visions.

I have only one desire, and that is the desire for solitude-to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to be lost in the secret of His Face.

The logic of the poet - that is, the logic of language or the experience itself - develops the way a living organism grows: it spreads out towards what it loves, and is heliotropic, like a plant.

The humble person receives praise the way a clean window takes the light of the sun. The truer and more intense the light is, the less you see of the glass.

To Serve the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether in oneself or in one's neighbor.

We cannot possess the truth fully until it has entered into the very substance of our life by good habits, and by a certain perfection of moral activity.

Love is free; it does not depend on the desirability of its object, but loves for love's sake.

How deluded we sometimes are by the clear notions we get out of books. They make us think that we really understand things of which we have no practical knowledge at all.

... but any fool knows that you don't need money to get enjoyment out of life.

Spread abroad the name of Jesus in humility and with a meek heart; show him your feebleness, and he will become your strength.

Grains of error planted innocently in a well-kept greenhouse can become giant poisonous trees.

I shall lead you through the loneliness, the solitude you will not understand; but it is my shortcut to your soul.

To be alone by being part of the universe-fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you do becomes a unity and a prayer. Unity within and without.

Duty does not have to be dull. Love can make it beautiful and fill it with life.

Happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found.

Life reveals itself to us only in so far as well live it.

Stop asking yourself questions that have no meaning. Or if they have, you'll find out when you need to -- find out both the questions and the answers.

For the ones who are called saints by human opinion on earth may very well be devils, and their light may very well be darkness

Because of their enmity you will be left alone. They will cast you out and forsake you.

When you reread your journal you find out that your newest discovery is something you already found out five years ago.

To be unknown to God is altogether too much privacy.

A humble man is not afraid of failure. In fact, he is not afraid of anything, even himself, since perfect humility implies perfect confidence in the power of God.

O God, my God, the night has values that the day never dreamed of.

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.

God Himself begins to live in me not only as my Creator but as my other and true self.

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.

The only unhappiness is not to love God.

The problem today is that there are no deserts, only dude ranches.

Love is a special way of being alive.

God, have mercy on me in the blindness in which I hope I am seeking You!

If Zen has any preference it is for glass that is plain, has no color, and is "just glass."

The man who lives in division is living in death. He cannot find himself because he is lost; he has ceased to be a reality. The person he believes himself to be is a bad dream.

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.