Thomas A Kempis Quotes
1. Those who attempt to search into the majesty of God will be overwhelmed with His Glory!
2. If you wish to draw profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faith, and never with the design of gaining a reputation for learning.
3. Intelligence must follow faith, never precede it, and never destroy it.
4. At the Day of Judgement we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done.
5. Give me courage to resist, patience to endure, constancy to persevere.
6. Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall have abundance of peace.
7. Do not trouble about those who are with you or against you, but take care that God be with you in everything you do.
8. Of two evils we must always choose the least.
9. Many are secretly seeking their own ends in what they do, yet know it not.
10. Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame.
11. Quickly enough we feel and reckon up what we bear at the hands of others, but we reflect not how much others are bearing from us.
12. Remember that lost time does not return.
13. Your sole desire should be the glory of God, not the praise of others.
14. All that is in the world is vanity except to love God and serve him only.
15. If you take on too much, your overcommitted schedules will become monsters that interfere with my agenda for you.
16. Nothing will hinder you more than thinking only about yourself.
17. Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.
18. All perfection hath some imperfection joined to it in this life, and all our power of sight is not without some darkness.
19. It’s meaningless to live a long life if you think only about yourself, and give no thought to caring about others.
20. You were born to work, so why do you look for rest?
21. The only safe ruler is he who has learned to obey willingly.
22. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.
23. God often grants in a moment what He has long denied.
24. The deepest and most profitable lesson is this,the true knowlege and contempt of ourselves.
25. Let temporal things be in the use, eternal things in the desire.
26. Your assignment is to love everyone, accepting all that happens to you.
27. Mightily and long must a man strive within himself before he learn altogether to overcome himself, and to draw his whole affection towards God.
28. As iron cast into fire loses its rust and becomes glowing white, so he who turns completely to God is stripped of his sluggishness and changed into a new man.
29. For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.
30. The more humble a man is in himself, and the more obedient towards God, the wiser will he be in all things, and the more shall his soul be at peace.
31. Wherever you go, there you are.
32. If you cannot recollect yourself continuously, do so once a day at least, in the morning or in the evening. In the morning make a resolution and in the evening examine yourself on what you have said this day, what you have done and thought, for in these things perhaps you have often offended God and those about you.
33. Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book.
34. We must not trust every word of others or feeling within ourselves, but cautiously and patiently try the matter, whether it be of God.
35. If you gave more frequent thought to your death than to a long life, you would unquestionably be more eager to amend your life.
36. To have no opinion of ourselves, and to think always well and highly of others, is great wisdom and perfection.
37. We may enjoy abundance of peace if we refrain from busying ourselves with the sayings and doings of others, and things which concern not ourselves.
38. You will never find peace unless you are united with Christ in the very depths of your heart.
39. It is not really a small thing when in small things we resist self.
40. Who struggles more than those who strive to overcome themselves?
41. Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
42. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider, nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in heaven or on earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is created above all things
43. Whoever loves much, does much…
44. Because our hearts are frivolous and because we ignore our faults we never discover the sickness in our souls, but idly we laugh when we have full reason to weep.
45. We would be well on the way to perfection if we could weed out one vice from ourselves each year
46. First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.
47. If God were our one and only desire we would not be so easily upset when our opinions do not find outside acceptance.
48. Take pains to be patient in bearing the faults and weaknesses of others, for you too have many flaws that others must put up with.
49. Greater is Your care for me than all the care I am able to take from myself.
50. Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or endeavoring something for the public good.
51. Learned arguments do not make a man holy and righteous, whereas a good life makes him dear to God.
52. A barrage of words does not make the soul happy, but a good life gladdens the mind and a pure conscience generates a bountiful confidence in God.
53. The man who is not yet wholly dead to self, is soon tempted, and is overcome in small and trifling matters.
54. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it.
55. No man can safely speak, unless he who would gladly remain silent.
56. The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does.
57. But why do we talk and gossip so continually, seeing that we so rarely resume our silence without some hurt done to our conscience?
58. Many things there are to know which profiteth little or nothing to the soul.
59. Simplicity ought to be in the intention, purity in the affection.
60. Sometimes my sin is not what I do; it also describes what I don’t do when I know I should.
61. The Lord bestows his blessings there, where he finds the vessels empty.
62. A book has but one voice, but it does not instruct everyone alike.
63. The highest does not stand without the lowest.
64. To think of oneself as nothing, and always to think well and highly of others is the best and most perfect wisdom.
65. By two wings is man lifted above earthly things, even by simplicity and purity. Simplicity ought to be in the intention, purity in the affection
66. Grant me prudently to avoid him that flatters me, and to endure patiently him that contradicts me.
67. This is great wisdom, not to be hasty in action, or stubborn in our own opinions.
68. It is better for you to live privately and take care of yourself than it is to neglect your soul even though you could work wonders in the world.
69. Unhappily we are so weak that we find it easier to believe and speak evil of others, rather than good
70. The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss.
71. All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace.
72. A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.
73. Fight like a man. Habit is overcome by habit.
