When you reread your journal you find out that your newest discovery is something you already found out five years ago. Thomas Merton More Quotes by Thomas Merton More Quotes From Thomas Merton But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. Thomas Merton solitude silence wisdom People have no idea what one saint can do: for sanctity is stronger than the whole of hell. Thomas Merton wisdom people ideas There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues. Thomas Merton contemplative-life wisdom temptation It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God. Thomas Merton spiritual christian ordinary In our creation, God asked a question and in our truly living; God answers the question. Thomas Merton creation wisdom answers The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reason and analysis but first of all by living. Thomas Merton analysis wisdom firsts Business is not the supreme virtue, and sanctity is not measured by the amount of work we accomplish. Perfection is found in the purity of our love for God, and this pure love is a delicate plant that grows best where there is plenty of time for it to mature Thomas Merton our-love perfection love-is If our life is poured out in useless words, we will never hear anything, never become anything, and in the end, because we have said everything before we had anything to say, we shall be left speechless at the moment of our greatest decision. Thomas Merton useless decision wisdom One of the most important-and most neglected-elements in the beginning of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendour that is all around us. Thomas Merton important beauty reality We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life! Thomas Merton beginners wisdom prayer It is by desiring to grow in love that we receive the Holy Spirit, and the thirst for more charity is the effect of this more abundant reception. Thomas Merton charity wisdom spirit I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. Thomas Merton doe desire believe 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. Thomas Merton spiritual happy peace A Christian is committed to the belief that Love and Mercy are the most powerful forces on earth. Thomas Merton powerful earth christian 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. Thomas Merton strong soul night Imagination has the creative task of making symbols, joining things together in such a way that they throw new light on each other and on everything around them. The imagination is a discovering faculty, a faculty for seeing relationships, for seeing meanings that are special and even quite new. Thomas Merton light imagination art Merely to resist evil with evil by hating those who hate us and seeking to destroy them, is actually no resistance at all. It is active and purposeful collaboration in evil that brings the Christian into direct and intimate contact with the same source of evil and hatred which inspires the acts of his enemy. It leads in practice to a denial of Christ and to the service of hatred rather than love. Thomas Merton hate wisdom christian Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God. Thomas Merton inspiration faith men 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. Thomas Merton rain night long The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in error, this first step to truth is the discovery of my error. Thomas Merton errors wisdom truth
