Thomas Merton said this quote

The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them

~ Thomas Merton

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.

~ Thomas Merton

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 am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.

~ Thomas Merton

If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.

~ Thomas Merton