The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.
THOMAS MERTON
THOMAS MERTON
Thomas Merton on life
Thomas Merton76 quotes“The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.”
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More from Thomas Merton
Perhaps I am stronger than I think.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton Others can give you a name or a number, but they can never tell you who you really are. That is something you yourself can only discover from within.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you. It tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your mind is silent, then the forest suddenly becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?
Thomas MertonThomas Merton Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton May God prevent us from becoming “right-thinking men”-that is to say men who agree perfectly with their own police.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton When you see God in everyone, then they see God in you.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton Love is not a matter of getting what you want. Quite the contrary. The insistence on always having what you want, on always being satisfied, on always being fulfilled, makes love impossible.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton Ours is a time of anxiety because we have willed it to be so. Our anxiety is not imposed on us by force from outside. We impose it on our world and upon one another from within ourselves.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton We live on the brink of disaster because we do not know how to let life alone. We do not respect the living and fruitful contradictions and paradoxes of which true life is full.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton Fear narrows the little entrance of our heart. It shrinks up our capacity to love. It freezes up our power to give ourselves.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton 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.
Thomas MertonThomas Merton
Original quotes
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More on life
Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
Arthur RimbaudArthur Rimbaud Meditation is the language of God. If we want to know what God’s Will is in our life, if we want God to guide us, mould us and fulfil Himself in and through us, then meditation is the language that we must use.
Sri ChinmoySri Chinmoy An extraordinary life is all about daily, continuous improvements in the areas that matter most.
Robin SharmaRobin Sharma Every picture I make, every experience of my private life, every lesson I learn are the keys to my future. And I have faith in it.
Clark GableClark Gable Life without limbs? Or life without limits?
Nick VujicicNick Vujicic Even seasonal situations can bring with them lessons that last a lifetime. If the love doesn’t last, it prepares you for the one that will.
Mandy HaleMandy Hale My life is making movies. I like storytelling, and I’ve got a lot of stories that are stored up in my head that I hope to get out before my time is up.
George LucasGeorge Lucas There are essentially two questions in life – a spiritual question and a material question. The spiritual question is ‘Who am I?’ The material question is ‘What am I to do with my life?’ One leads to the other.
Rasheed OgunlaruRasheed Ogunlaru