A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found: for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy.
THOMAS MERTONWhen I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.
More Thomas Merton Quotes
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Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.
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In Silence God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.
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Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.
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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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Actions are the doors and windows of being. Unless we act, we have no way of knowing what we are.
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The artist should preach nothing-not even his own autonomy. His art should speak its own truth, and in so doing it will be in harmony with every other kind of truth- moral, metaphysical, mystical.
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We cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great.
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The man who sweats under his mask, whose role makes him itch with discomfort, who hates the division in himself, is already beginning to be free.
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Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
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Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder.
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Before we can realize who we really are, we must become conscious of the fact that the person we think we are, here and now, is at best an impostor and a stranger.
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Prayer is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him who loves us, who is near to us.
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The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
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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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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.
THOMAS MERTON