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Humble people can do great things with uncommon perfection because they are no longer concerned about their own interests and their own reputation, and therefore they no longer need to waste their efforts in defending them.

Thomas Merton

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Thomas Merton
Age: 53 †
Born: 1915
Born: January 15
Died: 1968
Died: December 10
Autobiographer
Catholic Priest
Essayist
Journalist
Peace Activist
Poet
Theologian
Trappist Cistercian Monk
Writer
Thomas Feverel Merton
Father Louis
Needs
Waste
Uncommon
Things
Therefore
Defending
People
Concerned
Efforts
Longer
Reputation
Effort
Interests
Interest
Humble
Need
Humility
Great
Perfection

More quotes by Thomas Merton

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Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder.
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Love is free it does not depend on the desirability of its object, but loves for love's sake.
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Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.
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To know the Cross is not merely to know our own sufferings. For the Cross is the sign of salvation, and no man is saved by his own sufferings. To know the Cross is to know that we are saved by the sufferings of Christ more, it is to know the love of Christ Who underwent suffering and death in order to save us. It is, then, to know Christ.
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In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.
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Sincerity must be bought at a price: the humility to recognize our innumerable errors, and fidelity in tirelessly setting them right.
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If we examine ourselves carefully we shall see most of us have an enormous amount of unfinished business...We have to be free so that we can just step across the line and that's it. That is what real freedom is.
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Grains of error planted innocently in a well-kept greenhouse can become giant poisonous trees.
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We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it.
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Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which... are just the opposite of what we were made for?
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Stop asking yourself questions that have no meaning. Or if they have, you'll find out when you need to -- find out both the questions and the answers.
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To be alone by being part of the universe-fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you do becomes a unity and a prayer. Unity within and without.
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A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.
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Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
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To Serve the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether in oneself or in one's neighbor.
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While some men see ordinary happenings, others see divine light and guidance.
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My spiritual goal is to one day walk into God and disappear.
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There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us.
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The problem today is that there are no deserts, only dude ranches.
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If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved.
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