Thomas Merton Quotes about Peace

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If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.

If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.

Thomas Merton

Peace, World, Ifs

Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed - but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

Thomas Merton

Peace, Hate, War

We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God

Thomas Merton

Peace, Catholic, Humanity

Thomas Merton (1994). “Ascent To Truth”, p.246, Bloomsbury Publishing

When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.

Thomas Merton

Country, Peace, War

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.121, New Directions Publishing

The God of peace is never glorified by human violence.

Thomas Merton

Peace, Ubuntu, Violence

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.207, Shambhala Publications

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed . . . I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.

Thomas Merton

Peace, War, Fall

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

I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism, and work slowly towards a world federation of peaceful nations. How will this be possible? Don't ask me. I don't know. But unless we develop a moral, spiritual, and political wisdom that is proportionate to our technological skill, our skill may end us.

Thomas Merton

Spiritual, Wisdom, Peace

Thomas Merton (1995). “Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis”, p.102, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.

Thomas Merton

Peace, Solitude, Looks

Thomas Merton (2012). “On Christian Contemplation”, p.36, New Directions Publishing

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

Thomas Merton

Peace, War, Sacrifice

Thomas Merton (2010). “The Nonviolent Alternative”, p.35, Macmillan

The world of men has forgotten the joys of silence, the peace of solitude, which is necessary, to some extent, for the fullness of human living. Man cannot be happy for long unless he is in contact with the springs of spiritual life which are hidden in the depths of his own soul. If man is exiled constantly from his own home, locked out of his spiritual solitude, he ceases to be a true person.

Thomas Merton

Happy, Spiritual, Peace

Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in the smoke of confabulation. There can be no peace on earth without the kind of inner change that brings man back to his "right mind." p. 31

Thomas Merton

Wisdom, Peace, Men

Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton (2007). “Gandhi on Non-Violence”, p.31, New Directions Publishing