Thomas Merton Quotes

I never had time to dream about being anyone else.

You can run, run, run away from a lot of things in life, but you can't run away from yourself. And the key to happiness is to understand and accept who you are.

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.

Getting in touch with your true self must be your first priority.

What keeps me going is that quest for just being able to be present and be myself. Not for people, but for me.

To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.

I'm learning simplicity and how to wear my body. I'm enjoying life and trying to be the best me.

It only seems that there is something more important for you to do than to just quietly be yourself.

I want to stop transforming and just start being.

There's nothing better than when a man is in tune with who he is.

I've fully embraced who I am. I stopped fighting with people and just come to realize, 'This is me. This is all of me.'

I don't want to be no more than what I am.

I feel pretty comfortable with who I am. After a while, if you're not, it's like, what are you hoping for?

The older I get, the easier it is to be all of me.

Once you really know yourself, can't nobody tell you nothing about you.

I have learned, as I get older, just to be who I am.

I've finally stopped running away from myself. Who else is there better to be?

Look long enough, out or in, and you’ll be glad you are who you are.

I am what I wanted and I want what I am.

I can express gratitude for the simple act of being able to breathe in and breathe out. I can move away from darkness and depression to light and hope. I can be happy with who I am, not what I should be, or what I might have been, or what someone tells me I must be. I am me, the true me; you are you, the true you - and that's good. That's beautiful. That's enough.

Accept that you are enough. You don't need to be anything that you are not.

The happy man is he who knows his limitations, yet bows to no false gods.

Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that. I Am That I Am sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in Be Still.