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Thomas Merton Quotes about Wisdom - Page 2

All Thomas Merton Quotes Acceptance Acting Age Ambition Anxiety Art Attitude Awakening Awareness Being Alone Being Single Being Yourself Belief Charity Children Choices Christ Christianity Church College Communication Compassion Consciousness Contemplation Country Courage Creation Darkness Desire Destiny Devil Discipline Doubt Earth Effort Eternity Evil Exercise Failing Faith Freedom Giving Glory God Grace Gratitude Happiness Hate Hatred Heart Heaven Hell Home Humanity Humility Identity Imagination Individuality Inspiration Inspirational Integrity Intuition Jesus Journey Joy Justice Language Liberty Life Logic Loneliness Love Lying Meditation Mercy Mindfulness Moon Overcoming Passion Peace Perfection Poverty Praise Prayer Pride Purpose Rain Reality Reflection Responsibility Risk Sacrifice Silence Simplicity Sin Solitude Sorrow Soul Spirituality Spring Study Suffering Teaching Temptation Today Truth Unconditional Love Understanding Unity Values Violence Vision Waiting War Wisdom quotes Work Out Worry Worship Writing

Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to regulate the whole of life by the eternal law of love. Gandhi, quoted in Merton, p. 38

Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to regulate the whole of life by the eternal law of love. Gandhi, quoted in Merton, p. 38

Love, Wisdom, Jesus

God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.

Wisdom, May, Sometimes

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.250, Shambhala Publications

The Holy Spirit is the most perfect gift of the Father to men, and yet He is the one gift which the Father gives most easily.

Wisdom, Father, Men

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.189, Shambhala Publications

The only thing to seek in contemplative prayer is God; and we seek Him successfully when we realize that we cannot find Him unless He shows Himself to us, and yet at the same time that He would not have inspired us to seek Him unless we had already found Him.

Wisdom, Prayer, Inspired

Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.61, Macmillan

Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.

Wisdom, Light, Gods Will

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.30, Shambhala Publications

Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.

Wisdom, Ambition, Way

Thomas Merton, Lawrence Cunningham (1996). “A search for solitude: pursuing the monk's true life”, Harper San Francisco

Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more.

Faith, Wisdom, Path

Thomas Merton (2002). “The Ascent to Truth”, p.39, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. The "sanity" of modern man is about as useful to him as the huge bulk and muscles of the dinosaur. If he were a little less sane, a little more doubtful, a little more aware of his absurdities and contradictions, perhaps there might be a possibility of his survival.

Wisdom, People, Survival

"Raids on the Unspeakable".

If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted that you will wish that you were dead.

Wisdom, Money, Writing

Thomas Merton, Robert Inchausti (2007). “Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing”, p.198, Shambhala Publications

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.

Spiritual, Wisdom, Peace

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

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

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.

Wisdom, Peace, Demand

We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real...and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists. (295)

Wisdom, Real, Two

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

Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism.

Wisdom, Solitude, Way

The biggest human temptation is... to settle for too little.

Wisdom, Temptation, Simple Life

Forbes, August 4, 1980.

Merely to resist evil with evil by hating those who hate us and seeking to destroy them, is actually no resistance at all. It is active and purposeful collaboration in evil that brings the Christian into direct and intimate contact with the same source of evil and hatred which inspires the acts of his enemy. It leads in practice to a denial of Christ and to the service of hatred rather than love.

Christian, Wisdom, Hate

The light of truth burns without a flicker in the depths of a house that is shaken with storms of passion and fear.

Wisdom, Passion, Light

Thomas Merton (2009). “A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3: 1952-1960”, p.39, Harper Collins

The Hindus are not looking for us to send them men who will build schools and hospitals, although those things are good and useful in themselves--and perhaps very badly needed in India: they want to know if we have any saints to send them.

Wisdom, School, Men

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.240, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Prayer and love are really learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart turns to stone.

Love, Wisdom, Prayer

"New Seeds of Contemplation".

We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!

Wisdom, Prayer, Beginners

"Contemplative Prayer".

For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.

Wisdom, Mean, Self

Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.31, New Directions Publishing

The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in error, this first step to truth is the discovery of my error.

Wisdom, Truth, Errors

Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.246, Shambhala Publications

This act of total surrender is not merely a fantastic intellectual and mystical gamble; it is something much more serious. It is an act of love for this unseen person, who, in the very gift of love by which we surrender ourselves to his reality also makes his presence known to us.

Wisdom, Reality, Intellectual

Souls are like athletes, that need opponents worthy of them, if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers, and rewarded according to their capacity.

Wisdom, Athlete, Soul

Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.117, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

In the end, it's the reality of personal realtionships that save everything.

Wisdom, Reality, Ends

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