If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell. – Thomas Merton
We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have – for their usefulness. – Thomas Merton
We have what we seek, it is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us. – Thomas Merton
Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another. – Thomas Merton
It is pleasant to be transferred from an office where one is afraid of a sergeant-major into an office where one can intimidate generals, and perhaps this is why history is so attractive to the more timid among us. We can recover self-confidence by snubbing the dead. – E.M. Forster, Abinger Harvest