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Thomas Merton Quotes - Page 18

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In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and seek Him and who strive to bring their own freedom under obedience to His divine purpose. All that is done by the will

In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and seek Him and who strive to bring their own freedom under obedience to His divine purpose. All that is done by the will of God in secret is done for His glory and for the good of those whom He has chosen to share in His glory.

Wisdom, Order, Evil

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.55, Shambhala Publications

If there was no other proof of the infinite patience of God, a very good one could be found in His toleration of the pictures that are painted of Him.

Infinite, Proof, Found

Thomas Merton (1948). “Figures for an apocalypse”

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.

Prayer, Silence, Unity

Thomas Merton (2009). “A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3: 1952-1960”, p.47, Harper Collins

Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life.

Death, Wisdom, Heart

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.132, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order.

Spiritual, Order, Personality

Thomas Merton (1998). “The seven storey mountain”, Harcourt

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

Found

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

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

Beautiful, Doe, Dull

Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.298, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

We assume that others are receiving the kind of appreciation we want for ourselves, and we proceed on the assumption that since we are not loveable as we are, we must become lovable under false pretenses, as if we were something better than we are.

Appreciation, Receiving, Want

Since no man ever can, or could, live by himself and for himself alone, the destinies of thousands of other people were bound to be affected, some remotely, but some very directly and near-at-hand, by my own choices and decisions and desires, as my own life would also be formed and modified according to theirs.

Destiny, Men, Hands

We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human and visible means, nor rests in any visible end. He who hopes in God trusts God, Whom he never sees, to bring him to the possession of things that are beyond imagination.

Mean, Imagination, Trust In God

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

It is not merely our own desire but the desire of Christ in His Spirit that drives us to grow in love. Those who seldom or never feel in their hearts the desire for the love of God and other men, and who do not thirst for the pure waters of desire which are poured out in us by the strong, living God, are usually those who have drunk from other rivers or have dug for themselves broken cisterns.

Wisdom, Strong, Heart

Thomas Merton (2002). “No Man Is an Island”, p.206, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.

Wisdom, Silence, Solitude

Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.373, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

Desert, Today, Problem

Thomas Merton (1966). “Raids on the Unspeakable”, p.19, New Directions Publishing

The world as pure object is something that is not there. It is not a reality outside us for which we exist....It is a living and self-creating mystery of which I am myself a part, to which I am myself, my own unique door.

Wisdom, Responsibility, Unique

Nicki Verploegen Vandergrift, Thomas Merton (1995). “Meditations with Merton”, Triumph Books

All men who live only according to their five senses, and seek nothing beyond the gratification of their natural appetites for pleasure and reputation and power, cut themselves off from that charity which is the principle of all spiritual vitality and happiness because it alone saves us from the barren wilderness of our own abominable selfishness.

Spiritual, Cutting, Men

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.172, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The whole world has risen in Christ... If God is 'all in all,' then everything is in fact paradise, because it is filled with the glory and presence of God, and nothing is any more separated from God.

World, Paradise, Facts

Thomas Merton (2011). “The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters”, p.822, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Contemplation in the age of Auschwitz and Dachau, Solovky and Karaganda is something darker and more fearsome than contemplation in the age of the Church Fathers. For that very reason, the urge to seek a path of spiritual light can be a subtle temptation to sin. It certainly is sin if it means a frank rejection of the burden of our age, an escape into unreality and spiritual illusion, so as not to share the misery of other men.

Spiritual, Father, Mean

To be unknown to God is altogether too much privacy.

Too Much, Privacy

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

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.

Humility, Humble, Men

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

The only unhappiness is not to love God.

God Love, Unhappiness

To find love I must enter into the sanctuary where it is hidden, which is the mystery of God.

Finding Love, Sanctuary, Mystery

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.61, New Directions Publishing

You will never be able to have perfect interior peace and recollection unless you are detached even from the desire of peace and recollection. You will never be able to pray perfectly until you are detached from the pleasures of prayer.

Prayer, Perfect, Desire

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

To those who have no personal experience of this revolutionary aspect of Christian truth, but who see only the outer crust of dead, human conservatism that tends to form around the Church the way barnacles gather on the hull of a ship, all this talk about dynamism sounds foolish.

Christian, Church, Way

Thomas Merton (2003). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.148, Shambhala Publications

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

Night, Values

For every gain in deep certitude there is a corresponding growth of superficial "doubt." This doubt is by no means opposed to genuine faith, but it mercilessly examines and questions the spurious "faith" of everyday life, the human faith which is nothing but the passive acceptance of conventional opinion.

Mean, Acceptance, Doubt

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.12, New Directions Publishing

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