The least of learning is done in the classrooms. Thomas Merton More Quotes by Thomas Merton More Quotes From Thomas Merton Humility sets us free to do what is really good, by showing us our illusions and withdrawing our will from what was only an apparent good. Thomas Merton withdrawingillusionhumility The center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth. Thomas Merton illusionpuresin We are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to 'like' one another. Love governs the will: 'liking' is a matter of sense and sensibility. Nevertheless, if we really love others it will not be too hard to like them also. Thomas Merton love-one-anotherneverthelessmatter I stand among you as one who offers a small message of hope. . . there are always people who dare to seek on the margin of society, who are not dependent on social acceptance, not dependent on social routine, and prefer a kind of free-floating existence under a state of risk. Thomas Merton riskacceptancepeople The only right way: to love and serve the man of the modern world, but not simply to succumb, with him, to all his illusions about the world. Thomas Merton menwayworld But precisely this illusion that everything is "clear" is what is blinding us all. It is a serious temptation, and it is a subtle form of pride and worldly love of power and revenge. Thomas Merton priderevengetemptation To find love I must enter into the sanctuary where it is hidden, which is the mystery of God. Thomas Merton finding-lovemysterysanctuary There is a subtle but inescapable connection between the "sacred" attitude and the acceptance of one's in most self. Thomas Merton acceptanceselfattitude It seems to me that the darkness that has troubled you ... comes from one very serious source. Without wanting to be in conflict with the truth and with the will of God, we are actually going against God's will and His teaching. Thomas Merton seriousteachingdarkness Curiously, the most serious religious people, or the most concerned scholars, those who constantly read the Bible as a matter of professional or pious duty, can often manage to evade a radically involved dialogue with the book they are questioning. Thomas Merton religiousbookpeople For pride, which is the inordinate attribution of goods and values and glories to one's own contingent self, cannot exist where there is no contingent self to which anything can be attributed. Thomas Merton gloryprideself Love is our true destiny. Thomas Merton famous-lovedestinylove-is My own personal task is not simply that of poet and writer (still less commentator, pseudo-prophet); it is basically to praise God out of an inner center of silence, gratitude, and 'awareness.' This can be realized in a life that apparently accomplishes nothing. Without centering on accomplishment or nonaccomplishment, my task is simply the breathing of this gratitude from day to day, in simplicity, and for the rest turning my hand to whatever comes, work being part of praise, whether splitting logs or writing poems, or best of all simple notes. Thomas Merton gratitudesimplewriting Either you look at the universe as a very poor creation out of which no one can make anything, or you look at your own life and your own part in the universe as infinitely rich, full of inexhaustible interest, opening out into the infinite further responsibilities for study and contemplation and interest and praise. Beyond all and in all is God. Thomas Merton infinitestudylooks The simplicity that all this presupposes is not easy to attain. I find that my life constantly threatens to become complex and divisive. A life of prayer is basically a very simple life. This simplicity, however, is the result of asceticism and effort: it is not a spontaneous simplicity. Thomas Merton simplicitysimpleprayer ... but any fool knows that you don't need money to get enjoyment out of life. Thomas Merton foollifeneeds The peace produced by grace is a spiritual stability too deep for violence — it is unshakeable Thomas Merton gracewisdomspiritual Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular. Thomas Merton superficialselffirsts No matter how ruined man and his world may seem to be, and no matter how terrible man's despair may become, as long as he continues to be a man his very humanity continues to tell him that life has a meaning. Thomas Merton menlifelong Love is free; it does not depend on the desirability of its object, but loves for love's sake. Thomas Merton sakedoelove-is
