Thomas Merton Quotes

If you think you are big, you will become small. If you are willing to become an absolute nothing, you will become larger than creation and Creator.

You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.

In the spiritual life the easiest way to conquer ego is to offer gratitude to God for five minutes daily. If you cannot offer gratitude for five minutes, then utter it for one minute. Offer your gratitude to God. Then you will feel that inside you a sweet, fragrant and beautiful flower is growing. That is the flower of humility.

The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.

Spiritual life and secure life do not go together; to save oneself on must struggle and take risks.

All that God asks you most pressingly is to go out of yourself … and let God be God in you

He is truly great that is great in charity. He is truly great that is little in himself, and maketh no account of any height of honor. And he is truly learned that doeth the will of God, and forsaketh his own will.

God cannot be realizxd if there is the slightest trace of pride.

I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.

A man in the view of absolute goodness, adores, with total humility. Every step downward, is a step upward. The man who renounceshimself, comes to himself.

As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.

To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.

Dependence, humility, simplicity, cooperation, and a sense of abandon are qualities greatly prized in the spiritual life, but extremely elusive for people who live in comfort.

The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation. In meditation we divest ourselves of all material conditions and feel our divine nature. We do not depend upon any external help in meditation. The touch of the soul can paint the brightest color even in the dingiest places; it can cast a fragrance over the vilest thing; it can make the wicked divine-and all enmity, all selfishness is effaced.

A saint is Christ's bride, totally attached, faithful, dependent. A saint is also totally independent, detached from idols and from other husbands... A saint is higher than anyone else in the world. A saint is the real mountain climber. A saint is also lower than anyone else in the world. As with water, he flows to the lowest places - like Calcutta.

The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation. In meditation we divest ourselves of all material condition and feel our divine nature.

Humility collects the soul into a single point by the power of silence. A truly humble man has no desire to be known or admired by others, but wishes to plunge from himself into himself, to become nothing, as if he had never been born. When he is completely hidden to himself in himself, he is completely with God

In a strange way the spiritual life isn't "useful" or "successful." But it is meant to be fruitful. And fruitfulness comes out of brokenness.

To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit,l from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.

Lord, let me find my life in thee, and not in the mire of this world's favour or gain.

If we do not die to ourselves, we cannot live to God, andhe that does not live to God, is dead.

The spiritual life is a reaching out to our innermost self, to our fellow human and to our God.

He who desires to worship God must harbor no childish illusions about the matter but bravely renounce his liberty and humanity.

My desire is to let go of my ego and let in His direction.

There is greatness in the fear of God, contentment in faith of God, and honour in humility.