Wisdom Quote by Thomas Merton — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Surrender your own poverty and acknowledge your nothingness to the Lord. Whether you understand it or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you and offers you an understanding and compassion which are like nothing you have ever found in a book or heard in a sermon.”

“Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.”

“I was not sure where I was going, and I could not see what I would do when I got [there]. But you saw further and clearer than I, and you opened the seas before my ship, whose track led me across the waters to a place I had never dreamed of, and which you were even then preparing to be my rescue and my shelter and my home.”

“Pride makes us artificial; humility makes us real”

“God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.”

“To enter into the realm of contemplation, one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance into a higher life. It is a death for the sake of life, which leaves behind all that we can know or treasure as life, as thought, as experience as joy, as being. [Every form of intuition and experience] die to be born again on a higher level of life.”

“Dont brag about being perfect..imperfections are what makes you attractive..”

“Don't feel the need to vent or complain, no matter how badly you would like to express your feelings. When it comes to speaking of those in power, always think of the consequences. Think about how those around you will perceive what you have to say. Will what you say be of advantage to you or will it hurt you in the end?”

“I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut.”

“On se réconcilie avec un ennemi qui nous est inférieur pour les qualités du coeur ou de l'esprit ; on ne pardonne jamais à celui qui nous surpasse par l'âme et le génie.”

“Everyone's allowed to be in love with the wrong person at some point. In fact, it's a mistake not to be.”

“The compulsion to do something for fun or pleasure is a bondage. Even wealth becomes a bondage when you think that having it means you must use it to seek pleasure and gratification.”