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Thomas Merton

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Famous Thomas Merton Quotes

“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.”

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Author:Thomas Merton
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“For every gain in deep certitude there is a corresponding growth of superficial "doubt." This doubt is by no means opposed to genuine faith, but it mercilessly examines and questions the spurious "faith" of everyday life, the human faith which is nothing but the passive acceptance of conventional opinion.”

HumansMeanGrowthOpinionDoubtAcceptanceGainsEverydayGenuineConventionalPassiveSuperficialEveryday LifeCorrespondingCertitude
Book:New Seeds of Contemplation
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“And it is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or comfort our own minds, when we seem to be useless and worthy of all contempt, when we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed and devoured, it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close to us for us to identify is stripped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find liberty. It is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure.”

MindMadeSoulSeemsNightLeftStrongSecretLibertyDarknessComfortPleasePureWorthyDestroyedSelfishnessUselessContemptAbandonment
Author:Thomas Merton
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“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.”

IfsKnowsLyingImaginationSilenceDarknessHeardObscurity
Book:New Seeds of Contemplation
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“The friends of Job appear on the scene as advisers and "consolers," offering Job the fruits of their moral scientia. But when Job insists that his sufferings have no explanation and that he cannot discover the reason for them through conventional ethical concepts, his friends turn into accusers, and curse Job as a sinner. Thus, instead of consolers, they become torturers by virtue of their very morality, and in so doing, while claiming to be advocates of God, they act as instruments of the devil.”

ReasonJobsSufferingTurnsMoralVirtueMoralitySceneDevilConceptsInstrumentsFruitCurseExplanationSinnerEthicalOfferingConventionalAdviserAccusers
Author:Thomas Merton
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“It is not humility to insist on being someone that you are not. It is as much as saying that you know better than God who you are and who you ought to be. How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city? How do you expect to reach your own perfection by leading somebody else's life? His sanctity will never be yours; you must have the humility to work out your own salvation in a darkness where you are absolutely alone.”

IfsKnowsMenEndsCitiesDarknessJourneyHumilityOughtPerfectionSalvationWho You AreWork OutWhere You AreAnother ManSanctity
Book:New Seeds of Contemplation
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“But there is no substance under the things I have gathered together about me. I am hollow, and my structure of pleasures and ambitions has no foundation. I am objectified in them. But they are all destined by their very contingency to be destroyed. And when they are gone there will be nothing left of me but my own nakedness and emptiness and hollowness, to tell me that I am a mistake.”

TogetherLeftMy OwnPleasureMistakeGoneAmbitionFoundationStructureDestroyedSubstanceEmptinessDestinedHollowContingencyHollowness
Author:Thomas Merton
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“... Nothing resembles reality less than the photograph. Nothing resembles substance less than its shadow. To convey the meaning of something substantial you have to use not a shadow but a sign, not the limitation but the image. The image is a new and different reality, and of course it does not convey an impression of some object, but the mind of the subject; and that is something else again.”

MindDoeDifferentUseRealityCoursesSubjectsObjectsShadowPhotographImpressionLimitationSubstanceDifferent Realities
Author:Thomas Merton
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“The camera does not know what it takes; it captures materials with which you reconstruct, not so much what you saw as what you thought you saw. Hence the best photography is aware, mindful, of illusion and uses illusion, permitting and encouraging it - especially unconscious and powerful illusions that are not usually admitted on the scene.”

KnowsDoeUsePowerfulSawsMaterialsScenePhotographyIllusionCamerasUnconsciousCapture
Book:The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
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“One thing is certain: the humility of faith, if it is followed by the proper consequences-by the acceptance of the work and sacrifice demanded by our providential task-will do far more to launch us into the full current of historical reality than the pompous rationalizations of politicians who think they are somehow the directors and manipulators of history.”

IfsThinkingRealityCertainOne ThingSacrificeAcceptanceHumilityPoliticianDirectorsConsequenceTasksHistoricalCurrentsPompousManipulator
Author:Thomas Merton
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