Thomas Merton Quotes

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

There is more security in self-denial, mortification, and other like virtues, than in an abundance of tears.

You will eat not to satisfy your palate but your hunger. A self-indulgent man lives to eat; a self-restrained man eats to live.

If there is no element of asceticism in our lives, if we give free rein to the desires of the flesh (taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible to the world), we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ. When the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self-renunciation.

I'm not conservative, but I am kind of clean living in my own life.

Do not follow vain desires; for verily he who prospers is preserved from lust, greed and anger.

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

Avoid extremes: be moderate In saving and in spending; An equable and easy gait Will win an easy ending.

Those in middling circumstances, have less temptation—they are inclined by habit and the company with whom they associate, to set bounds to their passions and appetites—if this is not sufficient, the want of means to gratify them will be a restraint—they are obliged to employ their time in their respective callings—hence less substantial yeomanry of the country are more temperate, or better morals and less ambition than the great.

The desert Arab found no joy like the joy of voluntarily holding back. He found luxury in abnegation, renunciation, self restraint. He made nakedness of the mind as sensuous as nakedness of the body. He saved his own soul, perhaps, and without danger, but in a hard selfishness.

I live by 'Everything in moderation.'

There is always a limit to self-indulgence, but none to self-restraint.

So many things--nay every real thing--is good if only it will be humble and ordinate.

Self-control is one of the most exhilarating of pleasures.

Temperance is corporeal piety; it is the preservation of divine order in the body.

Fasting is futile unless it is accompanied by an incessant longing for self-restraint.

Do nothing immoderate.

To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a virtue, but the groundwork of virtue.

Without asceticism, self-indulgence would be insignificant.

May I consider the wise man rich, and may I have such wealth as only the self-restrained man can bear or endure.

Temperance in everything is requisite for happiness.

He who can curb his wrath as soon as it arises, as a timely antidote will check snake's venom that so quickly spreads, - such a monk gives up the here and the beyond, just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin.

Do not be eager for things above.

Three enemies that will weaken your ministry over time: Self-indulgence, bitterness, and carelessness. Strong people discipline their desires, restrain their reactions, and keep their commitments.

Offend in neither word nor deed. Eat with moderation. Live in your heart. Seek the highest consciousness. Master yourself according to the law. This is the simple teaching of the awakened.