Thomas Merton Solitude Quotations

I have only one desire, and that is the desire for solitude-to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to be lost in the secret of His Face.

There is not true intimacy between souls who do not know how to respect one another's solitude.

I shall lead you through the loneliness, the solitude you will not understand; but it is my shortcut to your soul.

Solitude is so necessary both for society and for the individual that when society fails to provide sufficient solitude to develop the inner life of the persons who compose it, they rebel and seek false solitudes.

But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.

When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when men are violently deprived of the solitude and freedom which are their due, then society in which they live becomes putrid, it festers with servility, resentment and hate.

Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism.

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.

The speech of God is silence. His Word is solitude.

It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.