"It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God."
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Quote collection
Thomas Merton quotes (page 18 of 31)
608 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it."
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"In our creation, God asked a question and in our truly living; God answers the question."
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"I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you."
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"The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reason and analysis but first of all by living."
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"There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues."
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"But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question."
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"Since no man ever can, or could, live by himself and for himself alone, the destinies of thousands of other people were bound to be affected, some remotely, but some very directly and near-at-hand, by my own choices and decisions and desires, as my own life would also be formed and modified according to theirs."
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"People have no idea what one saint can do: for sanctity is stronger than the whole of hell."
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"There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness."
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"Imagination has the creative task of making symbols, joining things together in such a way that they throw new light on each other and on everything around them. The imagination is a discovering faculty, a faculty for seeing relationships, for seeing meanings that are special and even quite new."
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"In the end, it's the reality of personal realtionships that save everything."
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"If we examine ourselves carefully we shall see most of us have an enormous amount of unfinished business...We have to be free so that we can just step across the line and that's it. That is what real freedom is."
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"It is by desiring to grow in love that we receive the Holy Spirit, and the thirst for more charity is the effect of this more abundant reception."
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"Business is not the supreme virtue, and sanctity is not measured by the amount of work we accomplish. Perfection is found in the purity of our love for God, and this pure love is a delicate plant that grows best where there is plenty of time for it to mature"
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"This is the crucifixion of Christ: in which He dies again and again in the individuals who were made to share the joy and freedom of His grace, and who deny Him."
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"Hurry ruins saints as well as artists."
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"One of the most important-and most neglected-elements in the beginning of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendour that is all around us."
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"The end of the world will be legal."
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"It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am, the more affection I have for them. It is pure affection, and filled with reverance for the solitude of others. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say."
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