Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllWisdomIfsMenSpiritualKnowsWayWorldSilenceMayPeopleSelfThinkingFactsLightSoulRealityWholeMeanWantDoe

Famous Thomas Merton Quotes

“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.”

IfsMenWorldHumansPersonsLongSoulHomeSpiritualJoyPeaceSilenceSolitudeSpringDepthForgottenHappyCeaseContactSpiritual LifeLockedFullnessTrue LifeTrue Person
Author:Thomas Merton
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenWorldGivingWritingMayLittlesWisdomJoyWishMoneyWrittenMinutesTenNoiseReachingTheologianDisgusted
Book:Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing
Create image

“It is true that neither the ancient wisdoms nor the modern sciences are complete in themselves. They do not stand alone. They call for one another. Wisdom without science is unable to penetrate the full sapiential meaning of the created and the material cosmos. Science without wisdom leaves man enslaved to a world of unrelated objects in which there is no way of discovering (or creating) order and deep significance in man's own pointless existence. (p. 4)”

MenWorldWayWisdomOrderExistenceModernObjectsMaterialsCreatingAncientCosmosSignificanceDiscoveringPenetratePointlessStand AloneModern ScienceAncient Wisdom
Author:Thomas Merton
Create image

“They were in the world and not of it--not because they were saints, but in a different way: because they were artists. The integrity of an artist lifts a man above the level of the world without delivering him from it.”

MenWorldWayDifferentWisdomArtistLevelsIntegritySaintLiftsDifferent WaysDelivering
Book:Thomas Merton: I Have Seen what I was Looking for : Selected Spiritual Writings
Create image

“Who is willing to be satisfied with a job that expresses all his limitations? He will accept such work only as a 'means of livelihood' while he waits to discover his 'true vocation'. The world is full of unsuccessful businessmen who still secretly believe they were meant to be artists or writers or actors in the movies.”

WorldBelieveMeanStillsWisdomJobsArtistActorsWaitingAcceptingWillingSatisfiedLimitationMeant To BeBusinessmanVocationLivelihoodUnsuccessfulWere Meant To Be
Book:Seeds
Create image

“We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. God manifests Himself everywhere, in everything - in people and in things and in nature and in events ... The only thing is we don't see it ... I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.”

PeopleWorldGivenHeavenVisionSeeingEventsProgramShiningAweGatesTransparentGates Of HeavenShining Through
Author:Thomas Merton
Create image

“What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows! Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants this rain. As long as it talks I am going to listen.”

WorldWantLongNightEnvironmentWonderfulSpeechRainForestsInnocentComfortingRidges
Author:Thomas Merton
Create image

“Perhaps peace is not, after all, something you work for, or 'fight for.' It is indeed 'fighting for peace' that starts all the wars. What, after all, are the pretexts of all these Cold War crises, but 'fighting for peace?' Peace is something you have or do not have. If you are yourself at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world. Then share your peace with everyone, and everyone will be at peace.”

IfsWorldWarFightingShareColdCrisisCold WarPretext
Author:Thomas Merton
Create image

“Our thought should not merely be an answer to what someone else has just said. Or what someone else might have said. Our interior world must be more than an echo of the words of someone else. There is no point in being a moon to somebody else's sun, still less is there any justification for our being moons of one another, and hence darkness to one another, not one of us being a true sun.”

WorldShouldSaidStillsWisdomMightAnswersDarknessSunMoonJustificationEchoesOur ThoughtsInteriorsNo Point
Author:Thomas Merton
Create image

“The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility.”

MenWorldFeelsHeartFeelingsBigsVoiceVisionDangerousSweetWarmAttractionConvincedGods WillInteriorsContemplativeInfallibilityDangerous Man
Book:Seeds of contemplation
Create image

“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.”

KnowsWorldBelieveMayEndsWisdomSpiritualPoliticalAsksBeliefI BelieveNationsPeaceDifficultMoralSkillsTasksPatientPeacefulPreparationAsk MeNationalismTechnologicalFederationOutgrowingPolitical Wisdom
Book:Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis
Create image

“The silence of the forest is my bride and the sweet dark warmth of the whole world is my love, and out of the heart of that dark warmth comes the secret that is heard only in silence, but it is the root of all the secrets that are whispered by all the lovers in their beds all over the world.”

WorldHeartWholeDarkSecretSilenceHeardSweetLoversBedRootsWhole WorldForestsWarmthBrides
Book:Dancing In The Water Of Life Volume 5:1963-1965: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage
Create image

“You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again, "Solitude, solitude." And You have turned around and thrown the world in my lap. You have told me, "Leave all things and follow me," and then You have tied half of New York to my foot like a ball and chain. You have got me kneeling behind that pillar with my mind making a noise like a bank. Is that contemplation?”

WorldMindWisdomBehindsHalfTreeFeetNew YorkWalkingSolitudeAll ThingsBallsNoiseChainsContemplationThrownTiedLapUp And DownPillarsFollow MeKneeling
Book:The Seven Storey Mountain
Create image

“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.”

WorldI CanWholeFormPrayerSilenceInvolvedWhole LifeDistractionSilence IsMeasurementLiberated
Book:Thoughts In Solitude
Create image

“The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man's life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which he presents to the world, and to bring out his inner spiritual freedom, his inmost truth, which is what we call the likeness of Christ in his soul.”

MenWorldSoulWholeSpiritualPurposeChristBehindsAttitudeSurfaceGesturesConventionalPenetrateSpiritual DirectionBeneath The SurfaceSpiritual Freedom
Book:Spiritual Direction and Meditation
Create image

“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
Create image