Of what use is a long life, if we amend so little?. Alas, a long life often adds to our sins rather than to our virtue!
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Age
Permit no hour to go by without it due improvement.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Quality
He that loveth, flieth, runneth, and rejoiceth. He is free, and cannot be held in. He giveth all for all, and hath all in all, because he resteth in one highest above all things, from whom all that is good flows and proceeds.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Giving, Charity
What thou art, that thou art.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Awareness, Realization, Acceptance
The better you understand yourself the less cause you will find to love yourself.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Identity
A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Gifts
He will be with you also, all the way, that faithful God. Every morning when you awaken to the old and tolerable pain, at every mile of the hot uphill dusty road of tiring duty, on to the judgment seat, the same Christ there as ever, still loving you, still sufficient for you, even then. And then, on through all eternity.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Faith
Remember, your prerogative is to govern, and not to serve the things of this world.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Memory
He that well and rightly considereth his own works will find little cause to judge hardly of another.
—Thomas a Kempis
How seldom we weigh our neighbors in the same balance as ourselves.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Hypocrisy
Whatever you do, do it with intelligence, and keep the end in view.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Intelligence, Goals
We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Temptation
The intention which is fixed on God as its only end will keep people steady in their purposes, and deliver them from being the joke and scorn of fortune.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: God
Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Laziness
Few spirits are made better by the pain and languor of sickness; as few great pilgrims become eminent saints.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Sickness
Thou shalt ever joy at eventide if thou spend the day fruitfully.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Day
Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others; for thou hast many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Faults
Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength…. It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things, and warrants them to take effect, where he who does not love would faint and lie down.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Love
Whoever puts his confidence in men or in any creature is very foolish.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Confidence
In judging of others a man laboreth in vain, often erreth, and easily sinneth; but in judging and examining himself he always laboreth fruitfully.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Judgment
If your heart were sincere and upright, every creature would be unto you a looking-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Heart
Don’t think so much about who is for or against you, rather give all your care, that God be with you in everything you do.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: God
If you bear the cross unwillingly, you make it a burden, and load yourself more heavily; but you must bear it.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Acceptance
The loftier the building the deeper the foundation must be.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Planning
How sweet it is to love, and to be dissolved, and as it were to bathe myself in thy love.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Love
Know all and you will pardon all.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Forgiveness
As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Adversity
Many deceive themselves, imagining they’ll find happiness in change.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Change
He who loves with purity considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Gifts
Oh how quickly the world’s glory passes away.
—Thomas a Kempis
Topics: Success is not everything
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg German Philosopher, Physicist
- Carl Zuckmayer German Playwright
- Eckhart Tolle German Spiritual Writer
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing German Writer
- Heinrich Heine German Poet, Writer
- Erich Fromm German Social Philosopher
- Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi German Philosopher
- Werner Heisenberg German Physicist
- Ludwig van Beethoven German Composer
- Anne Frank German Holocaust Victim
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