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When I criticize a system, they think I criticize them—and that is of course because they accept the system and identify themselves with it. All love and bliss! And they seem to have no idea that the affluence (which for them is the kingdom of God) has another side to it—the buried bodies of children in Vietnam and the Negro-Puerto Rican ghettos.

— Thomas Merton Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton by John Howard Griffin (1983)

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More quotes by Thomas Merton

Chuang Tzu is not concerned with words and formulas about reality, but with the direct existential grasp of reality in itself.

The Way of Chuang-Tzŭ (1965)

This new language of prayer has to come out of something which transcends all our traditions, and comes out of the immediacy of love.

The humor, the sophistication, the literary genius, and philosophical insight of Chuang Tzu are evident to anyone who samples his work.

The Way of Chuang-Tzŭ (1965)

All problems are resolved and everything is clear. The rock, all matter, all life, is charged with dharmakaya… everything is emptiness and everything is compassion.

The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (1975)

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Merton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.