Thomas Merton Quotes

Such excessive preoccupation with his faults is not a truly spiritual activity but, on the contrary, a highly egoistic one.The recognition of his own faults should make a man humbler, when it is beneficial, not prouder, which the thought that he ought to have been above these faults makes him.

We live in a culture that encourages us to be big about ourselves, and I think the starting point of trying to build inner goodness is to be a little bit smaller about yourself.

What does it mean to know and experience my own “nothingness?” It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my illusions and faults and mistakes, to separate myself from them as if they were not, and as if I were someone other than myself. This kind of self-annihilati on is only a worse illusion, it is a pretended humility which, by saying “I am nothing” I mean in effect “I wish I were not what I am.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

I am not the same man I was 35 years ago. And I hope that five years and ten years from now, I'll be a better man, a more mature man, a wiser man, a more humble man and a more spirited man to serve the good of my people and the good of humanity.

But whether it be dream or truth, to do well is what matters. If it be truth, for truth's sake. If not, then to gain friends for the time when we awaken.

Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.

No sickness worse than imagining thyself to be perfect can afflict thy soul.

The ego is terrified of the truth. And the truth is that the ego doesn't exist.

Discard yourself and thereby regain yourself. Spread the trap of humility and ensnare love.

Those who think that they have arrived, have lost their way. Those who think they have reached their goal, have missed it. Those who think they are saints, are demons.

We know nothing of humility by nature, for we are all born proud.

Be humble, if thou would'st attain to wisdom. Be humbler still, when wisdom thou hast mastered.

To begin with oneself but not to end with onself. To start from oneself but not to aim at oneself.

A great man la an abstraction of some one excellence; but whoever fancies himself an abstraction of excellence, so far from being great, may be sure that he is a blockhead, equally ignorant of excellence or defect of himself or others.

Man never falls so low that he can see nothing higher than himself.

When I was young, I thought I was a god. Now, I just basically work on staying humble. My priorities changed. Just to be able to try to change them - that was frightening to me.

There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give; when to this truth you waken then you begin to live.

Our holiness is an effect, not a cause; so long as our eyes are on our own personal whiteness as an end in itself, the thing breaks down.

I try not to be proud. I try to actively attack pride.

Human improvement is from within outward.

Believing: it means believing in our own lies. And I can say that I am grateful that I got this lesson very early.

There's no blueprint for where I should be. I see myself as a young, good actor who still has a lot to learn. There's nobody at any point in their career who is the finished article.

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.