Thomas Merton

We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity.

We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves.

Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone—we find it with another.

There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.