“We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real… and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists. (295)”
Source: New Seeds of Contemplation
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Thomas Merton 92
Priest and author 1915–1968Related quotes
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.21
Context: He fully knows His unchangeable essence, and has thus a knowledge of all that results from any of His acts. If we were to try to understand in what manner this is done, it would be the same as if we tried to be the same as God, and to make our knowledge identical with His knowledge. Those who seek the truth, and admit what is true, must believe that nothing is hidden from God; that everything is revealed to His knowledge, which is identical with His essence; that this kind of knowledge cannot be comprehended by us; for if we knew its method, we would possess that intellect by which such knowledge could be acquired.... Note this well, for I think that this is an excellent idea, and leads to correct views; no error will be found in it; no dialectical argument; it does not lead to any absurd conclusion, nor to ascribing any defect to God. These sublime and profound themes admit of no proof whatever... In all questions that cannot be demonstrated, we must adopt the method which we have adopted in this question about God's Omniscience. Note it.
Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)
“If He who in Himself can lack nothing chooses to need us, it is because we need to be needed.”
The Problem of Pain (1940)
As it is: The consolation of action (p. 194)
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)
N.Y. Herald Tribune (September 9, 1956)
Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage