The only true liberty is in the service of that which is beyond all limits, beyond all definitions, beyond all human appreciation: that which is All, and which therefore is no limited or individual thing: The All is no-thing, for if it were to be a single thing separated from all other things, it would not be All.
Thomas MertonOne has to be alone, under the sky, Before everything falls into place and one finds his or her own place in the midst of it all. We have to have the humility to realize ourselves as part of nature.
Thomas MertonContemplative living is living in true relationship with oneself, God, others and nature, free of the illusions of separateness.
Thomas MertonThe Christian life, and especially the contemplative life, is a continual discovery of Christ in new and unexpected places.
Thomas MertonVery well, then: why are you attached to any one book, or to the words and ways of one saint when he himself tells you to let them go and walk in simplicity? To hang on to him as if to make a method of him is to contradict him and to go in the opposite direction to the one in which he would have you travel.
Thomas Merton