There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. Thomas Merton More Quotes by Thomas Merton More Quotes From Thomas Merton In the devil's theology, the important thing is to be absolutely right and to prove that everybody else is absolutely wrong. Thomas Merton theologydevilimportant Power always protects the good of some at the expense of all others. Thomas Merton expensesprotect Every man becomes the image of the God he adores. He whose worship is directed to a dead thing becomes dead. He who loves corruption rots. He who loves a shadow becomes, himself, a shadow. He who loves things that must perish lives in dread of their perishing. Thomas Merton shadowworshipmen The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all by living. For until we have begun to live our prudence has no material to work on. And until we have begun to fail we have no way of working out our success. Thomas Merton analysiswork-outlife To those who have no personal experience of this revolutionary aspect of Christian truth, but who see only the outer crust of dead, human conservatism that tends to form around the Church the way barnacles gather on the hull of a ship, all this talk about dynamism sounds foolish. Thomas Merton churchchristianway I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may meanI myself do not know, but if you listen, things will be said that are perhaps not written in this book. And this will be due not to me but to the One who lives and speaks in both. Thomas Merton wisdomselfbook The speech of God is silence. His Word is solitude. Thomas Merton speechsolitudesilence I can only become perfectly free by serving the will of God. Thomas Merton gods-willcatholici-can For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self. Thomas Merton wisdomselfmean For the birds there is not a time that they tell, but the point vierge between darkness and light, between being and nonbeing. You can tell yourself the time by their waking, if you are experienced. But that is your folly, not theirs. Thomas Merton lightwisdombird As long as I am content to know that He is infinitely greater than I, and that I cannot know Him unless He shows himself to me, I will have Peace, and He will be near me and in me, and I will rest in Him. Thomas Merton showsknowslong Our whole life is a meditation of our last decision - the only decision that matters. Thomas Merton meditationdecisionmatter What we have to be is what we are. Thomas Merton wisdom The Christian life, and especially the contemplative life, is a continual discovery of Christ in new and unexpected places. Thomas Merton contemplative-lifechristiandiscovery Love is...like a spring coming up out of the ground of our own depths. "I am gift." All that I am is something that's given, and given freely. Being doesn't cost anything. There's no price tag, no strings attached. Thomas Merton price-tagspringlove Thinking about monastic ideals is not the same as living up to them, but at any rate such thinking has an important place in a monk's life, because you cannot begin to do anything unless you have some idea what you are trying to do. Thomas Merton happinessideasthinking Teach me to go to the country beyond words and beyond names. Thomas Merton teachnamescountry 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. Thomas Merton silencelightsoul My best writing has always been in journals. Thomas Merton journalwriting Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm. Thomas Merton silencewisdomsound
