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Thomas Merton Quotes about Evil

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There are crimes which no one would commit as an individual which he willingly and bravely commits when acting in the name of his society, because he has been (too easily) convinced that evil is entirely different when

There are crimes which no one would commit as an individual which he willingly and bravely commits when acting in the name of his society, because he has been (too easily) convinced that evil is entirely different when it is done 'for the common good.'...one might point to the way in which racial hatreds and even persecution are admitted by people who consider themselves, and perhaps in some sense are, kind, tolerant, civilized and even humane.

Thomas Merton
Names, People, Evil

A bad book about the love of God remains a bad book.

Thomas Merton
Love, Book, Evil
Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.71, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The devil makes many disciples by preaching against sin. He convinces them that the great evil of sin, induces a crisis of guilt by which “God is satisfied," and after that he lets them spend the rest of their lives meditating on the intense sinfulness and evident reprobation of other men.

Thomas Merton
Men, Evil, Guilt
Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.92, New Directions Publishing

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

Thomas Merton
Evil, Overcoming, Triumph
Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton (1965). “Gandhi on Non-violence”, p.13, New Directions Publishing

It is not only our hatred of others that is dangerous but also and above all our hatred of ourselves: particularly that hatred of ourselves which is too deep and too powerful to be consciously faced. For it is this which makes us see our own evil in others and unable to see it in ourselves.

Thomas Merton
Powerful, Evil, Hatred
Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.112, New Directions Publishing

The evil in the world is all of our own making, and it proceeds entirely from our ruthless, senseless, wasteful, destructive, and suicidal neglect of our own being.

Thomas Merton
Suicidal, Evil, World
Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.222, Image

To desire Him to be merciful to us is to acknowledge Him as God. To seek His pity when we deserve no pity is to ask Him to be just with a justice so holy that it knows no evil and shows mercy to everyone who does not fly from Him in despair.

Thomas Merton
Wisdom, Acknowledge Him, Evil
Thomas Merton (2002). “No Man Is an Island”, p.234, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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.

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

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.

Thomas Merton
Wisdom, Evil, Temptation

Everybody has an instinctive desire to do good things and avoid evil. But that desire is sterile as long as we have no experience of what it means to be good.

Thomas Merton
Mean, Long, Evil
Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.34, Macmillan

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