To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the dangers of selfishness and self-centeredness in one's perspective on life.
Thomas Merton suggests that focusing solely on how people, events, and situations impact oneself leads to a shallow and ultimately miserable existence. This self-absorbed viewpoint neglects the interconnectedness of humanity and the importance of empathy, compassion, and understanding for others, which can lead one to a figurative hell of isolation and despair.
In practice
During a discussion on personal growth, this quote can remind participants of the importance of empathy.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
I think when you think of death as being part of the life cycle and recognize that death is an inevitability for our species because the world has to be renewed with each death, then the hope becomes when it is renewed it will be renewed by people on whom I have had some influence for good.
Man is a dream about a shadow. But when some splendour falls upon him from God, a glory comes to him and his life is sweet.
The significance of life is living.
Don't confuse good taste with the absence of taste.
Peace is the only battle worth waging.
These decrees of yours are no different from spiders' webs. They'll restrain anyone weak and insignificant who gets caught in them, but they'll be torn to shreds by people with power and wealth.
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