Thomas Merton

"Prayer is an expression of who we are. We are not our own, and so our prayer is not private, and is not just for ourselves."

"True freedom is not the ability to do whatever I want, but the ability to want what I truly need."

"God's first language is silence."

"We are not problems that need to be solved, but mysteries to be lived."

"The strength of a country is the strength of its religious convictions."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."

"We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims."

"Art and poetry are not for the sake of creating objects, but for the sake of the development of our being."

"In the technological age, we must protect the person from the machinery that seems to serve us."

"The way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

"Everything that is is a sign of God's love."

"We are destroying ourselves and one another, because we are blind to the presence of the divine in every person."

"The most important thing is to believe in something beyond yourself, to strive for something greater than yourself."

"We need to be as innocent as doves and as wise as serpents."

"The purpose of education is to teach men to reach their full humanity."

"We cannot become truly ourselves without others."

"Nature is a sign and a sacrament of God's love."

"The life that we live is not merely individual, but collective."

"The way to know God is not through abstract concepts, but through the living of the spiritual life."

"We are part of a great communion of saints that stretches across all time and space."

"The most radical spiritual act we can perform is simply to be fully present to reality as it is."

"Great love is not measured by the greatness of the gift, but by the extent of the sacrifice."

"We live in a civilization of speed and noise that has nothing to do with the rhythm of our hearts."

"The quest for meaning is the most fundamental aspect of human nature."

"If you do not know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?"

"Life is fundamentally a mystery that we participate in, not a problem to be solved."

"The greatest danger facing us is that we will become what we hate."

"We are responsible not only for our actions but for their consequences."

"The gift of an active mind is not always a gift, but often a curse."

"To live is to be surprised at every moment."