quote · Legacy record
In other words, I have tried to learn in my writing a monastic lesson I could probably not have learned otherwise: to let go of my idea of myself, to take myself with more than one grain of salt... In religious terms, this is simply a matter of accepting life, and everything in life as a gift, and clinging to none of it, as far as you are able. You give some of it to others, if you can. Yet one should be able to share things with others without bothering too much about how they like it, either, or how they accept it. Assume they will accept it, if they need it. And if they don’t need it, why should they accept it? That is their business. Let me accept what is mine and give them all their share, and go my way.
In other words, I have tried to learn in my writing a monastic lesson I could probably not have learned otherwise: to let go of my idea of myself, to take myself with more than one grain of salt... In religious terms, this is simply a matter of accepting life, and everything in life as a gift, and clinging to none of it, as far as you are able. You give some of it to others, if you can. Yet one should be able to share things with others without bothering too much about how they like it, either, or how they accept it. Assume they will accept it, if they need it. And if they don’t need it, why should they accept it? That is their business. Let me accept what is mine and give them all their share, and go my way.
Approximate author period: c. 1941 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Thomas Merton
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
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- Approximate author period: c. 1941 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1915 to 1968; Wikidata Q335011, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q335011 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 305563; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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