Thomas Merton

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.”

“In silence, the small voice can be heard.”

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.”

“I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself.”

“The fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.”

“But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.”

“And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.”

“Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.”

“I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

“To be a saint means to be myself.”

“For me to be a saint means to be myself.”

“Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.”

“There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity.”

“A silence so deep, a sweetness so pure, a beauty so simple, that words fall away.”

“Then I saw that all of these people were and are walking around shining like the sun.”

“There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

“If only we could see each other as we really are all the time.”

“There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty.”

“The self is not something we find, it is something we create.”