Quotes from Thomas Merton
Love is perfect in proportion to it's freedom.
- Thomas Merton
One opens the inner doors of one's heart to the infinite silences of the Spirit, out of whose abysses love wells up without fail and gives itself to all.
- Thomas Merton
Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.
- Thomas Merton
If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved.
- Thomas Merton
Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love.
- Thomas Merton
...love triumphs, at least in this life, not by eliminating evil once for all, but by resisting and overcoming it anew every day.
- Thomas Merton
But precisely this illusion that everything is "clear" is what is blinding us all. It is a serious temptation, and it is a subtle form of pride and worldly love of power and revenge.
- Thomas Merton
For if I am to love truly and freely, I must be able to give something that is truly my own to another. If my heart does not first belong to me, how can I give it to another?
- Thomas Merton
To Serve the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether in oneself or in one's neighbor.
- Thomas Merton
Love is a special way of being alive.
- Thomas Merton
O love-why can't you leave me alone? Which is a rhetorical question meaning: for heaven's sake, don't.
- Thomas Merton
To become attached to the experience of peace is to threaten the true and essential and vital union of our soul with God above sense and experience in the darkness of a pure and perfect love.
- Thomas Merton