merton Quotes

“Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.”

“A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.”

“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.”

“Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.”

“Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.”

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

“In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.' If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.”

“Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.”

“If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell.”

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”