Thomas Merton Quotations | Page 5

How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me?

I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.

We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of others and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.

Violence is not completely fatal until it ceases to disturb us.

The real hope is not in something we think we can do, but in God, who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see.

What do I mean by loving ourselves properly? I mean first of all, desiring to live, accepting life as a very great gift and a great good, not because of what it gives us, but because of what it enables us to give to others.

Humility is a virtue, not a neurosis.