Thomas Merton Quotes

Faith is not the opposite of reason.

My reason nourishes my faith and my faith my reason.

Faith never goes contrary to reason -- faith simply ignores reason and rises above it.

Reason is one thing and faith is another and reason can as little be made a substitute for faith, as faith can be made a substitute for reason.

In theology we must consider the predominance of authority; in philosophy the predominance of reason.

Faith is not contrary to reason.

One of my professors said to me once, "Any god that can be killed off will be killed, but if I can shake up your faith in your god, it means you already don't have much of a god."

Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.

There is nothing higher than reason.

Faith was intended precisely for the simple, but the quest for certainty and simplicity becomes dangerous when it leads to fanaticism and narrow-mindedness. When reason as such becomes suspect, then faith itself becomes falsified.

Once man's connection to the divine is denied, you can reason yourself from here to anywhere.

Faith is not the opposite of reason. Faith rests squarely upon reason, but with the added component of revelation.

Faith is a function of the heart. It must be enforced by reason. The two are not antagonistic as some think. The more intense one's faith is, the more it whets one's reason. When faith becomes blind it dies.

It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.

The difference between faith and superstition is that the first uses reason to go as far as it can, and then makes the jump; the second shuns reason entirely — which is why superstition is not the ally, but the enemy, of true religion.

Faith is not logical. But it isn't illogical either. Faith is theological. It does not ignore reality; it just adds God into the equation.

Logic works, metaphysics contemplates.

The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.

Intelligence must follow faith, never precede it, and never destroy it.

It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.

The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith, and Faith is an Act of Reason.

Faith is not uprooted by dialectic proof; it must already be deeply shaken by other causes to be unable to withstand the shock of argument.

I oppose any belief that contradicts experimental evidence as determined by the methods of science. All beliefs not in such contradiction may be considered as faith. Whether faith in a particular belief is beneficial or not is another matter.

I will live by the standard of reason, and if thinking in accordance with reason takes me to perdition, then I will go to hell with my reason rather than to heaven without it.

I don't see myself as a philosopher. That's awfully boring.