Thomas Merton Quotes

Hope is a very unruly emotion.

To be hopeful means to be uncertain about the future, to be tender toward possibilities, to be dedicated to change all the way down to the bottom of your heart.

Hope is a moral choice.

Sometimes the most difficult, horrific things can be the greatest spiritual teachers.

The point about hope is that it is something that occurs in very dark moments. It is like a flame in the darkness; it isn't like a confidence and a promise.

Hope is the most important four-letter word in the language.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

Hope is a risk that must be run.

Hope is like compassion to me. It's like possibility and living in possibility.

To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives: it is the only way we can leave the future open.

Faith means living with uncertainty - feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark.

There are no guarantees. From the viewpoint of fear, none are strong enough. From the viewpoint of love, none are necessary.

I have an incredible confidence in the resilience of the human spirit and the creative ability of the Holy Spirit. So, if you can get people asking the right questions, it really will start moving in the right direction.

It's a good place when all you have is hope and not expectations.

I don't know what the future holds. All I know is, I'm good today. Real good.

I wanted to tell people that hope is really powerful.

I salute you for your courage, and I applaud your perseverance, and I embrace you for your faith in the face of adversarial forces.

Give us the strength, give us the wisdom, and give us tomorrow.

The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.

Going in faith does not necessarily mean going with serenity or without doubts. Faith can be difficult.

For she had embodied the Great Perhaps--she had proved to me that it was worth it to leave behind my minor life for grander maybes, and now she was gone and with her my faith in perhaps.

It's the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee.

You need never be discouraged or afraid. The way through difficulties has always been prepared for you, and you will find it if you exercise faith.

In this life, anything can happen - and what can help bring it to pass is Hope

What after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them?