Quotes from Thomas Merton

If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.

We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of others and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us.

The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in error, this first step to truth is the discovery of my error.

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.

In this age of crowds in which I have determined to be a solitary, perhaps the greatest sin would be to lament the presence of people on the threshold of my solitude.

Love is our true destiny. We do not find meaning of life by ourselves alone we find it with another.

The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone-we find it with another.