“There is no true solitude except interior solitude. And interior solitude is not possible for anyone who does not accept his true place in relation to other men. There is no true peace possible for the man who still imagines that some accident of talent or grace or virtue segregates him from other men and places him above them.

“God does not give us graces of talents or virtues for ourselves alone. We are members one of another and everything that is given to one member is given for the whole body.”

Merton, Thomas. Seeds of Contemplation. (NY: Dell, 1949), page 36