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Quote by Thomas Merton

“Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which... are just the opposite of what we were made for?”

Quote by Thomas Merton

Book:No Man Is an Island

Work

No Man Is an Island

This book is a profound exploration of individuality and its relationship to society. It delves into the idea that no person is an island, emphasizing the necessity of human connection and the impact of community on personal identity and well-being. more

Author

Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 - December 10, 1968) was an American writer, poet, social critic, and mystic. His works covered a wide range of topics including philosophy, religion, and social justice, and were highly appreciated by readers. more

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“When love of one's people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism. When love of equality turns into a supreme thing, it can result in hatred and violence toward anyone who has led a privileged life. It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods.”

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Book:Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

Source: Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

“The men who wrote the First Amendment religion clause did not view paid legislative chaplains and opening prayers as a violation of that amendment... the practice of opening sessions with prayer has continued without interruption ever since that early session of Congress. It can hardly be thought that in the same week the members of the first Congress voted to appoint and pay a chaplain for each House and also voted to approve the draft of the First Amendment... (that) they intended to forbid what they had just declared acceptable.”

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Author:Warren E. Burger

“Let it simply be said that we know more about the details of the hours immediately before and the actual death of Jesus, in and near Jerusalem, than we know about the death of any other one man in all the ancient world.”

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Author:Wilbur Smith

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Book:The Oxford Edition of Blackstone's: Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book I: Of the Rights of Persons

Source: The Oxford Edition of Blackstone's: Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book I: Of the Rights of Persons

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“Sin is to a nature what blindness is to an eye. The blindness of an evil or defect which is a witness to the fact that the eye was created to see the light and, hence, the very lack of sight is the proof that the eye was meant... to be the one particularly capable of seeing the light. Were it not for this capacity, there would be no reason to think of blindness as a misforture.”

Source: The City of God, Books XVII–XXII (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 24)

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