Hurry ruins saints as well as artists. They want quick success, and they are in such a hurry to get it that they cannot take time to be true to themselves. And when the madness is upon them, they argue that their very haste is a species of integrity.
Interpretation
Haste can lead to a lack of authenticity and true quality in one's work.
Thomas Merton's quote highlights the detrimental effects of haste in the pursuit of success for both saints and artists. It suggests that in the rush to achieve quick results, individuals often compromise their integrity and authenticity, mistaking their frantic pace for genuine commitment. The quote serves as a reminder that true success requires patience and a steadfast loyalty to one's true self rather than succumbing to the pressures of immediate gratification.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of authenticity in art, one might say, 'As Thomas Merton wisely noted, hurry ruins saints as well as artists.'
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.
You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.
It's amazing what we lose in life by listening to fear, instead of listening to God.
We don’t know what to do with our own pain, so what to do with the pain of others? We don’t know what to do with our own weakness except hide it or pretend it doesn’t exist. So how can we welcome fully the weakness of another if we haven’t welcomed our own weakness?
The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.
The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all those more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.
Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are alike.
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