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
(Thanks, Chuck Crisco)

Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist, and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis.
Born: January 31, 1915, Prades, France
Died: December 10, 1968, Thailand
Buried: Abbey of Gethsemani, Trappist, KY