Thomas Merton Quotes

When you think you know it all, there's not much that you'll learn.

It is our knowledge - the things we are sure of - that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.

Don't let your heart get big because of your knowledge. Take counsel with the ignorant as well as with the scholar.

I used to have so many opinions before I learned the facts.

The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you'll be.

The minute you think you know everything about tennis is the minute your game starts going down the tubes.

Distinguish open-minded people from closed-minded people. Open-minded people seek to learn by asking questions; they realize that what they know is little in relation to what there is to know and recognize that they might be wrong. Closed-minded people always tell you what they know, even if they know hardly anything about the subject being discussed. They are typically made uncomfortable by being around those who know a lot more about a subject, unlike open-minded people who are thrilled by such company.

If you think you know it all, you are missing something.

We must quit thinking we know everything, and quit placing "knowledge" over kindness and compassion.

Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.

Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's really there.

The losers in life think they have all the answers. They can’t learn because they’re too busy telling everyone what they know.

The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.

Do not hate what you do not know, for the greater part of knowledge consists of what you do not know.

What I learned is that it's arrogant to be certain of anything. The world is a complex place and only idiots or assholes think they know it all.

No one is so wrong as the man who knows all the answers.

The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn-the less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.

The person who thinks he has found the ultimate truth is wrong.

The surest way to lose truth is to pretend that one already wholly possesses it.

If you're smart, you'll always be humble. You can learn all you want, but there'll always be somebody who's never read a book who'll know twice what you know.

As soon as you think you know someone else's truth better than they do, you are in deep water.

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

It's only through listening that you learn, and I never want to stop learning.

It's most presumptuous to believe we already know all the answers and will never get any more big surprises.