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Thomas Merton

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Famous Thomas Merton Quotes

“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.”

PeopleIfsLittlesEndsWisdomMightValuesRealizingModernPossibilitySurvivalContradictionSanitySaneAbsurdityDoubtful
Author:Thomas Merton
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“The married man and the mother of a Christian family, if they are faithful to their obligations, will fulfill a mission that is as great as it is consoling: that of bringing into the world and forming young souls capable of happiness and love, souls capable of sanctification and transformation in Christ.”

IfsMenWorldSoulChristianYoungMotherChristMarriedCapableAnd LoveTransformationMissionsObligationFaithfulSanctificationHappiness And LoveMarried ManConsolingChristian Family
Author:Thomas Merton
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“It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, now I realize what we all are . If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth This little point is the pure glory of God in us. It is in everybody.”

PeopleIfsHumansLittlesProblemBigsWould BeFallRealizingSinRaceDestinyPureMembersWorshipGloryIllusionDown AndHuman RaceGloriousNothingnessFalling DownGlory Of GodBig Problems
Author:Thomas Merton
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“If it so happened that I had once written a best-seller, this was a pure accident, due to inattention and naivete, and I would take very good care never to do the same again. If I had a message for my contemporaries, I said, it was surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success.”

IfsSaidCareFormWrittenHappenedOne ThingCostPureShapesMessagesVery GoodDuesAccidentsMadmenSellersBest SellersInattentionNaivete
Book:Seeds
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“To some men peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means the freedom to rob others without interruption. To still others it means the leisure to devour the goods of the earth without being compelled to interrupt their pleasures to feed those whom their greed is starving. And to practically everybody peace simply means the absence of any physical violence that might cast a shadow over lives devoted to the satisfaction of their animal appetites for comfort and pleasure.”

PeopleMenMeanStillsMightEarthPleasureAnimalLibertyViolenceComfortShadowGreedCastsSatisfactionAbsenceGoodsAppetiteLeisureDevotedCompelledStarvingExploitsInterferenceInterruptionsRetaliationPhysical Violence
Book:New Seeds of Contemplation
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“O God, teach me to be satisfied with my own helplessness in the spiritual life. Teach me to be content with Your grace that comes to me in darkness and that works things I cannot see. Teach me to be happy that I can depend on You. To depend on You should be enough for an eternity of joy. To depend on You by itself ought to be infinitely greater than any joy which my own intellectual appetite could desire.”

ShouldI CanEnoughSpiritualJoyDesireMy OwnTeachDarknessGreaterGraceDependsOughtIntellectualEternitySatisfiedAppetiteSpiritual LifeHelplessnessLife Teaches
Author:Thomas Merton
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“Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one is getting something. The truth is doing us good. The truth of the sunshine, the truth of the rain, the truth of the fresh air, the truth of the wind in the trees, these are truths. And they are always accessible!”

IfsWayFormNaturalAirTreePositionWindHigherGoodnessRainProfitContactSunshineRespondingRejectingFresh AirWind In The Trees
Author:Thomas Merton
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“You must realize that it is the ordinary way of God's dealings with us that our ideas do not work out speedily and efficiently as we would like them to. The reason for this is not only the loving wisdom of God, but also the fact that our acts have to fit into a great complex pattern that we cannot possibly understand. I have learned over the years that Providence is always a whole lot wiser than any of us, and that there are always not only good reasons, but the very best reasons for the delays and blocks that often seem to us so frustrating and absurd.”

WayYearsIdeasReasonWholeFactsSeemsRealizingFitOrdinaryComplexesPatternsWork OutAbsurdBlockProvidenceI Have LearnedWiserDelayFrustratingDealings
Book:The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters
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“Memory is corrupted and ruined by a crowd of memories. If I am going to have a true memory, there are a thousand things that must first be forgotten. Memory is not fully itself when it reaches only into the past. A memory that is not alive to the present does not remember the here and now, does not remember its true identity, is not memory at all. He who remembers nothing but facts and past events, and is never brought back into the present, is a victim of amnesia.”

IfsFirstsDoeFactsPastRememberMemoriesAliveEventsIdentityThousandVictimForgottenCrowdsRuinedHere And NowAmnesiaTrue IdentityPast Events
Book:New Seeds of Contemplation
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“Creation was given to people as a clean window through which the light of God could shine into people's souls. Sun and moon, night and day, rain, sea, the crops, the flowering tree, all these things were transparent. They spoke to people not of themselves but only of Him who made them. Nature was symbolic. But the progressive degradation of humans led them further and further from this truth. Nature became opaque.”

PeopleHumansMadeSoulLightNightGivenNatureSunTreeSeaCreationMoonRainWindowShiningCleanSpokesProgressiveTransparentCropsSymbolicDegradationFloweringOpaqueMoon NightFlowering Trees
Author:Thomas Merton
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“It's a risky thing to pray and the danger is that our very prayers get between God and us. The great thing in prayer is not to pray, but to go directly to God. . . . The fact is, though, that if you descend into the depths of your own spirit and arrive somewhere near the center of what you are, you are confronted with the inescapable truth that, at the very root of your existence, you are in constant and immediate contact with the infinite power of God.”

IfsFactsSpiritPrayerExistenceDangerPrayingRootsInfiniteConstantDepthGreat ThingsContactPraying To GodPower Of GodInfinite Power
Author:Thomas Merton
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