“What we have to be is what we are.”
Explore This Quote Further
Analysis of "What we have to be is what we are.” - Thomas Merton
This quote by Thomas Merton emphasizes the importance of being authentic and true to oneself. It suggests that instead of trying to be someone we are not or conforming to societal expectations, we should embrace our true selves. By accepting and embracing who we are, we can find peace, fulfillment, and true happiness. This quote serves as a reminder to stay true to ourselves and not try to be someone we are not.
Embracing Authenticity in the Modern World
In a digital age where it's easy to project an idealized version of ourselves on social media, Thomas Merton's words serve as a powerful reminder to embrace our true selves. In a world that often values conformity and fitting in, being true to who we are can be a revolutionary act. By staying authentic to our values, beliefs, and passions, we can navigate through life with integrity and purpose. Merton's message encourages us to embrace our uniqueness and live our lives authentically, despite external pressures to be someone else.
Embracing Authenticity
One of the deepest truths in life is to be ourselves, just as Thomas Merton suggests in his quote, “What we have to be is what we are.” This timeless wisdom reminds us to stay true to our own essence and embrace our authenticity.
Reflection Questions
In considering Thomas Merton's statement, "What we have to be is what we are," reflect on the following questions:
- How do you interpret the idea that we must be true to ourselves in order to truly be authentic?
- In what ways do external influences shape our sense of self, and how can we navigate these to stay true to who we are?
- What practices or habits can help us stay grounded in our core values and beliefs?
- How can embracing our true selves lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful life?
- Are there aspects of yourself that you have embraced or suppressed, and how do these impact your overall sense of well-being?
Similar quotes
“We have what we seek. We don't have to rush after it. It was there all the time, and if we give it time it will make itself known to us.”
“A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thought for life and ideas for actions. The activity proper to man is purely mental because man is not just a disembodied mind. Our destiny is to live out what we think, because unless we live what we know, we do not even know it. It is only by making our knowledge part of ourselves, through action, that we enter into the reality that is signified by our concepts.”
“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”
“A man is a free being who is always changing into himself. This changing is never merely indifferent. We are always getting either better or worse. Our development is measured by our acts of free choice, and we make ourselves by the patterns of our desires.If our desires reach out for the things that we were created to have and to make and to become, then we will develop into what we were truly meant to be.But if our desires reach out for things that have have no meaning for the growth of our spirit, if they lose themselves in dreams or passions or illusions, we will be false to ourselves and to other men and to God. We will judge ourselves as aliens and exiles from ourselves and from God.In hell, there is no recollection. The damned are exiled not only from God and from other men, but even from themselves.”
“One who is content with what he has, and who accepts the fact that he inevitably misses very much in life, is far better off than one who has much more but who worries about all he may be missing . . . the relative perfection which we must attain to in this life if we are to live as sons of God is not the twenty-four-hour-a-day production of perfect acts of virtue, but a life from which practically all the obstacles to God's love have been removed or overcome. One of the chief obstacles to this perfection of selfless charity is the selfish anxiety to get the most out of everything, to be a brilliant success in our own eyes and in the eyes of other men. We can only get rid of this anxiety by being content to miss something in almost everything we do. We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to retain the one thing necessary for us— whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need. Happiness consists in finding out precisely what the "one thing necessary" may be, in our lives, and in gladly relinquishing all the rest. For then, by a divine paradox, we find that everything else is given us together with the one thing we needed.”
“We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are travelling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light.But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!”