In the natural order no matter what ideals may be theoretically possible, most people more or less live for themselves and for their own interests and pleasures or for those of their own family or group, and therefore they are constantly interfering with one another's aims, and hurting one another and injuring one another, whether they mean it or not.
Thomas MertonThe truth never becomes clear as long as we assume that each one of us, individually, is the center of the universe.
Thomas MertonThis is the crucifixion of Christ: in which He dies again and again in the individuals who were made to share the joy and freedom of His grace, and who deny Him.
Thomas MertonTo love blindly is to love selfishly, because the goal of such love is not the real advantage of the beloved but only the exercise of love in our own souls.
Thomas MertonAsh Wednesday is full of joy...The source of all sorrow is the illusion that of ourselves we are anything but dust.
Thomas Merton