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Thomas Merton Quotes about Silence

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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

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

Silence, Objects, Cease

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

It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.

Brother, Silence, Solitude

The speech of God is silence. His Word is solitude.

Silence, Solitude, Speech

Thomas Merton (1996). “Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk & Writer”, Harper San Francisco

Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.

Wisdom, Silence, Sound

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.134, Shambhala Publications

When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. My whole silence is full of prayer. The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.

Prayer, Silence, World

Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.106, Macmillan

Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

Relationship, Brother, Silence

Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.280, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. For religion goes beyond words and actions, and attains to the ultimate Truth only in silence and Love.

Religious, Silence, And Love

Thomas Merton, Robert Inchausti (2007). “Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing”, p.56, Shambhala Publications

The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by learning to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen) we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of Love for which there can be no explanations.... May we all grow in grace and peace, and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.

Simple, Reality, Silence

Contradictions have always existed in the soul of [individuals]. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.

Light, Silence, Soul

"Thoughts in Solitude". Book by Thomas Merton, 1956.

Not only does silence give us a chance to understand ourselves better, to get a truer and more balanced perspective on our own lives in relation to the lives of others: silence makes us whole if we let it. Silence helps draw together the scattered and dissipated energies of a fragmented existence.

Giving, Perspective, Silence

Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.49, Macmillan

I suppose what makes me most glad is that we all recognize each other in this metaphysical space of silence and happening, and get some sense, for a moment, that we are full of paradise without knowing it.

Knowing, Space, Silence

For language to have meaning, there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language. Perhaps it is love and respect for language which imposes silence upon him. For the mercy of God is not heard in words unless it is heard, both before and after the words are spoken, in silence.

Hate, Mercy Of God, Silence

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

If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness. Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence. Since God cannot be imagined, anything our imagination tells us about Him is ultimately a lie and therefore we cannot know Him as He really is unless we pass beyond everything that can be imagined and enter into an obscurity without images and without the likeness of any created thing.

Lying, Imagination, Silence

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.131, New Directions Publishing

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

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

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am, the more affection I have for them. It is pure affection, and filled with reverance for the solitude of others. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

Single, Brother, Silence

Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.280, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

If we have not silence, God is not heard in our music. If we have no rest God, does not bless our work.

Silence, Doe, Bless

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.134, Shambhala Publications

May we all grow in grace and peace and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.

Silence, Grace, May

Thomas Merton (2011). “The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters”, p.179, Macmillan

Whose silence are you?

Wisdom, Silence

Thomas Merton, Lynn Szabo (2005). “In the Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton”, p.90, New Directions Publishing

Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being. Between the silence of the world and the silence of God. When we have really met and known the world in silence, words do not separate us from the world nor from other men, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality.

Reality, Men, Silence

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