If our life is poured out in useless words, we will never hear anything, never become anything, and in the end, because we have said everything before we had anything to say, we shall be left speechless at the moment of our greatest decision.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the importance of meaningful communication and self-reflection in life.
Thomas Merton emphasizes that if we fill our lives with meaningless chatter and fail to listen or reflect, we will lack substance when faced with pivotal choices. Ultimately, he suggests that wisdom comes from limiting our words and focusing instead on understanding and growth.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about the importance of listening.
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.
Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems _x000D_ with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who _x000D_ never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has _x000D_ a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the _x000D_ bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don't follow anyone _x000D_ who's not going anywhere.
Everyone recognizes a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. . . Wisdom is a kind of knowledge. It is knowledge of the nature, career, and consequences of human values. Since these cannot be separated from the human organism and the social scene, the moral ways of man cannot be understood without knowledge of the ways of things and institutions.
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.
The secret to freedom from enslaving patterns of sin is worship. You need worship. You need great worship. You need weeping worship. You need glorious worship. You need to sense God’s greatness and to be moved it — moved to tears and moved to laughter — moved by who God is and what he has done for you.
When we are motivated by compassion and wisdom, the results of our actions benefit everyone, not just our individual selves.
You can never be wise unless you love reading.
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