Quotes

“ [T]he question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime—the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. ”  
- Martin Luther King, Jr, Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

 

“ Why does the Lord command us to love our enemies and to pray for them? Not for their sake, but for ours! For as long as we bear grudges, as long as we dwell on how someone offended us, we will have no peace. ” - Blessed Elder Thaddeus

“ Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. ”
- Martin Luther King, The Quest for Peace and Justice.

“ What is of importance today is not to get modern man to accept religion as a human or cultural value (he may do so or he may not) but to let him see that we are witnesses of Christ, of the new creation, of the Resurrection, of the Living God: and that is something that goes far beyond the cultural phenomenon of religion. ” - Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action (133)

 

“ We give ourselves over to others, both individuals and institutions and, more broadly, to places where we work and to neighborhoods in which we live, while reserving for ourselves a certain distance: the right, it can be said, to be appreciative and responsive and loyal, with the obligation to find a proper respect for our own personal or private ideas or ideals. ” - Robert Coles, from the foreward to Thomas Merton’s Contemplation in a World of Action (vii)

“ The Eternal [God] seems to be especially keen on that part of us that makes us different from Himself. If we had permanence, we would probably be toward him what the stones are toward us: indifferent. ”
 - Lanza del Vasto (via Thomas Merton’s Red Diary)

 

“ There is also purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment & which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior, namely in man’s attitude to his existence. ” 
- Thomas Merton (from his Red Diary).