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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.

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.

Discipline, Confusion, Silence

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.

Moving On, Faith, Courage

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

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.

Love, Spiritual, Wisdom

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

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.

Relationship, Spiritual, Inspirational Love

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

Wisdom, Emotional, Mind

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

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.

Faith, Believe, Inspiration

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

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.

Faith, Gratitude, Grateful

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

Wind, Tree, Forests

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.

Roots, Demand, Want

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

Silence, Objects, Cease

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.

Wall, Climbing, People

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

Grace

My life is ... a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though 1 were led by the hand in a night where I see nothing, but can fully depend on the love and protection of Him who guides me.

Night, Hands, Action

Thomas Merton (2011). “The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters”, p.86, Macmillan

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

Purpose, Life Is, Our Lives

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

Ordinary, Alive, Ordinary Things

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.

Real, Imagination, Silence

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

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.

Journey, Differences, Joy

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

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

Gratitude, Grace, Moments

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.

Wisdom, Destiny, Want

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

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.

Love, Life, Wisdom

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

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.

Wisdom, Struggle, Reality

"A Poetic Hope" by Cassidy Hall, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 8, 2017.

For although God is right with us and in us and out of us and all through us, we have to go on journeys to find him.

Journey, Goes On

Our real journey in life is interior.

Real, Journey, Conformity

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

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

People

"Seeds".

Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.

Compassion, Awareness, Loving Kindness

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