The center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth.

If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

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

Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to regulate the whole of life by the eternal law of love. Gandhi, quoted in Merton, p. 38

I can only become perfectly free by serving the will of God.

After all, what is your personal identity? It is what you really are, your real self. None of us is what he thinks he is, or what other people think he is, still less what his passport says he is. And it is fortunate for most of us that we are mistaken. We do not generally know what is good for us. That is because, in St. Bernard's language, our true personality has been concealed under the 'disguise' of a false self, the ego, whom we tend to worship in place of God.