Thomas Merton Quotes

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

A daydream is an evasion.

We have what we seek, it is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us.

Every moment and every event of every man's life o... -Thomas Merton

Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.

Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life.

Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your ... -Thomas Merton

Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.

If you want to study the social and political hist... -Thomas Merton

If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell.

Discovering the context

This quote metaphorically characterizes the social and political history of modern nations as tumultuous and chaotic, likening it to the concept of hell. It implies a perspective that suggests understanding the complexities and challenges of modern societies requires a comprehensive examination of their historical development.