“There is a time for warmth in the collective myth. But there is also a time to be born. He who is spiritually ‘born’ as a mature identity is liberated from the enclosing womb of myth and prejudice. He learns to think for himself, guided no longer by the dictates of need and by systems and processes designed to create artificial needs and the ‘satisfy’ them.”

Merton, Thomas. “Rain and the Rhinoceros.” (1965) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 221.