The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, i…

Thomas Merton
439 citations
The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we might prefer to people. Wherever things have become more important than people, we are in trouble. That is the crux of the whole matter. ✨ Thomas Merton (1989). Thomas Merton in Alaska: Prelude to the Asian Journal : the Alaskan Conferences, Journals, and Letters, p.97, New Directions Publishing
Humanity
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To worship our false selves is to worship nothing. And the worship of nothing is hell. ✨ Thomas Merton (2007). New Seeds of Contemplation, p.26, New Directions Publishing
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, … ▶
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The cause of liberty becomes a mockery if the price to be paid is the wholesale destruction of those who are to enjoy liberty. Ghandi, quoted in Merton, p. 68

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