Thomas Merton Quotes

I knew I had a lot to say. Not politically - politics have always confused me - but perhaps spiritually.

He would still see it as his duty to shut up and get on with it, not cause any trouble. In our own time we've made a hero of the rebel, and it's more heroic to speak up.

To be silent is to be complicit.

Poetry connects you to yourself, to the self that doesn't know how to talk or negotiate.

Silence is a solvent that destroys personality, and gives us leave to be great and universal.

Only once have I been made mute. It was when a man asked me, 'Who are you?'

"What do you want out of life?" I asked, and I used to ask that all the time of girls.

We stumble on, thinks Jaslyn, bring a little noise into the silence, find in others the ongoing of ourselves. It is almost enough.

I think, over the course of one's lifetime, there are always certain core elements that are intriguing to you, and you take different looks as you get older, but it's something you keep coming back to. I've always been interested in the relationship between vulnerability and control. That's something that's a big thing for people, whoever they are, no matter how old you are. I think at different times, you're more aware than others.

All our silences in the face of racist assault are acts of complicity.

Sometimes you have to give yourself to somebody in order to see who you are. Sometimes you have to unravel things to get to the core

I found myself again and then found love.

To gain your own voice you have to forget about having it heard.

What am I then, my God? What is my nature? A life varied, multifaceted and truly immense.

Always keep your words soft and sweet. You never know when you'll have to eat them. Always remember, as you go out to seek your fortune, your fame, your fulfillment, always remember that it's not who you know in this world, it's whom.

Relationship is a mirror in which you can see yourself, not as you would wish to be, but as you are.

There is nothing as certain as silence, stillness, and solitude to introduce you to the secrets of yourself.

The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves.

You realize that especially when you're writing a book like this, looking back on your life, that there's just such a depth of understanding you acquire over time with the help of the people who love you that that's when you can really get down to what you really think and believe.

Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me? When will my reflection show who I am inside?

I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself.

A self-respecting man is a man without a country. A fatherland is birdlime.

A wise man travels to discover himself.

The next voice you hear will undoubtedly be your own.

When you look back... on your love affairs... what you really find out is that the only person you really go to bed with is yourself.