"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another."

Thomas Merton Religion See all quotes by Thomas Merton →

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“A Book of Hours by Thomas Merton”

“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can.”

“By my monastic life and vows I am saying No to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political trials, the judicial murders, the racial injustices, the economic tyrannies, and the whole socio-economic apparatus which seems geared for nothing but global destruction in spite of all its fair words in favor of peace.”

“Hope of attaining true freedom by purely political means has become an insane delusion. .”

“The Thomas Merton we knew" by Jim Knight”

“Thomas Merton Monk and Poet”

Resonant Thoughts

"Geometry was invented that we might expeditiously avoid, by drawing Lines, the Tediousness of Computation. Therefore these two Sciences ought not to be confounded. The Antients did so industriously di…"

— Isaac Newton

Mathematics1934–2014

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"Progress, in the sense of acquisition, is something; but progress in the sense of being, is a great deal more. To grow higher, deeper, wider, as the years go on; to conquer difficulties, and acquire m…"

— James Freeman Clarke

Politics1810–1888

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"The habits of a man accustomed to command — especially on a foreign station, would necessarily be reserved and secluded. Not only accustomed to implicit obedience, but aware of its imperative necessit…"

— Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literature1802–1838

#life