854 Quotes by Thomas Merton

A man searching for enlightenment is like a man sitting on an Ass in search of an Ass

Nonviolence seeks to ‘win’ not by destroying or even by humiliating the adversary, but by convincing [the adversary] that there is a higher and more certain common good than can be attained by bombs and blood. Nonviolence, ideally speaking, does not try to overcome the adversary by winning over [them], but to turn [them] from an adversary into a collaborator by winning [them] over.

The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by learning to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen) we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of Love for which there can be no explanations.... May we all grow in grace and peace, and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.

We love the things we pretend to laugh at.

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.

A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.

The man of faith who has never experienced doubt is not a man of faith.

Ash Wednesday is full of joy...The source of all sorrow is the illusion that of ourselves we are anything but dust.

While some men see ordinary happenings, others see divine light and guidance.