“Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him." by Thomas Merton?
Thomas Merton photo
Thomas Merton 92
Priest and author 1915–1968

Related quotes

“The tales we tell ourselves about ourselves makes us who we are.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Second Helpings

Audrey Hepburn photo
Alan Moore photo

“We are all the aggregate of the ideas about us, including our own ideas about us.”

Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books

De Abaitua interview (1998)
Context: We are all the aggregate of the ideas about us, including our own ideas about us. That is all that any of us can be considered as – units of information in a sea of information. When you get to a certain point, there is not much more to it than information. <!-- Which for our terms is practically synonymous with language, because that is the only way we understand information, in one sort of language or another.

John Ruysbroeck photo

“God is more interior to us than we are to ourselves.
His acting in us is nearer and more inward than our own actions.
God works in us from inside outwards;
creatures work on us from the outside.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

John of Ruysbroeck Spiritual Espousals, complete works, Mechelen 1934, vol. 1, p. 148. English version New York 1953.

John Ruysbroeck photo

“God is more interior to us than we are to ourselves.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

John of Ruysbroeck Spiritual Espousals, complete works, Mechelen 1934, vol. 1, p. 148. English version New York 1953.
Context: God is more interior to us than we are to ourselves.
His acting in us is nearer and more inward than our own actions.
God works in us from inside outwards;
creatures work on us from the outside.

Frithjof Schuon photo

“If we must love God, and love him more than ourselves and our neighbor, it is because love exists before us and because we are issued from it; we love by virtue of our very existence.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2005, Stations of Wisdom, World Wisdom, 94, 978-0-94153218-1]
God, Reverential fear and love

“we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves… But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves -- unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

“We're more concerned about our own "victory" over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve God's heart.”

Jerry Bridges (1929–2016) American writer

Source: The Pursuit of Holiness

Rick Riordan photo

Related topics