What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?
THOMAS MERTONSelf-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves. For no one can give up what he does not possess.
More Thomas Merton Quotes
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Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.
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Violence is not completely fatal until it ceases to disturb us.
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A man who fails well is greater than one who succeeds badly.
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We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.
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The purpose of our lives is to find the purpose of our lives.
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We cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great.
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Our real journey in life is interior.
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No one is so wrong as the man who knows all the answers.
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When you see God in everyone, then they see God in you.
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Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled his faith.
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We are not converted only once in our lives but many times and this endless series of conversions and inner revolutions leads to our transformation.
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Self-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves. For no one can give up what he does not possess.
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Perhaps I am stronger than I think.
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Weaknesses and deficiencies play a most important part in all our lives. It is because of them that we need others and others need us. We are not all weak in the same spots, and so we supplement and complete one another, each one making up in himself for the lack in another.
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How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me?
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Fear narrows the little entrance of our heart. It shrinks up our capacity to love. It freezes up our power to give ourselves.
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The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds.
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In a world of noise, confusion and conflict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline and peace. In such places love can blossom.
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From the moment you put a piece of bread in your mouth you are part of the world. Who grew the wheat? Who made the bread? Where did it come from? You are in relationship with all who brought it to the table. We are least separate and most in common when we eat and drink.
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Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us and see the beauty in ordinary things.
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Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already I am.
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We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have – for their usefulness.
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The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.
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Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to enable the deeper voice of our own self to be heard at least occasionally.
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How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me?
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Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.
THOMAS MERTON