Thomas a Kempis
To be able to live peaceably with hard and perverse persons, or with the disorderly, or with such as go contrary to us, is a great grace.Collection: Grace
Without labor there is no rest, nor without fighting can the victory be won.Collection: Fighting
Wheresoever we seek our own, there we fall from love.Collection: Fall
It is better to be affected with a true penitent sorrow for sin than to be able to resolve the most difficult cases about it.Collection: Sorrow
In Jesus and for Him, enemies and friends alike are to be loved.Collection: Jesus
Bodily exercises are to be done discreetly; not to be taken evenly and alike by all men.Collection: Taken
He does much who loves God much, and he does much who does his deed well.Collection: Deeds
How sweet it is to love, and to be dissolved, and as it were to bathe myself in thy love.Collection: Love
Old custom is hard to break and scarce any man will be led otherwise than seemeth good unto himself.Collection: Men
You are a man, not God; you are human, not an angel. How can you expect to remain always in a constant state of virtue, when this was not possible even for an angel of Heaven, nor for the first man in the Garden?Collection: God
A humble knowledge of ourselves is a surer way to God than is the search for depth of learning.Collection: God
If you seek Jesus in all things you will surely find Jesus. And if you seek yourself, you will surely find yourself, but only to your ruin.Collection: Jesus
All His glory and beauty come from within, and there He delights to dwell, His visits there are frequent, His conversation sweet, His comforts refreshing; and His peace passing all understanding.Collection: Sweet
Thou shalt rest sweetly if thy heart condemn thee not.Collection: Heart
How seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance with ourselves.Collection: Balance
If thou hadst a good conscience thou wouldst not greatly fear death.Collection: Fear Of Death
Always be thou prepared, and so live that death may never find thee unprepared.Collection: Death
We are often moved with passion and think it to be zeal.Collection: Passion
Occasions of adversity best discover how great virtue or strength each one hath. For occasions do not make a man frail, but they show what he is.Collection: Adversity
Whatsoever is done in charity, however small and of no reputation it be, bringeth forth good fruit.Collection: Inspiration
Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself.Collection: Art
Pass no rash condemnation on other peoples words or actions.Collection: Tolerance
Set not thyself to attain much rest, but much patience.Collection: Patient
My child, it will be better for you if you accept my decisions without complaint. Do not ask me to defend my actions or to explain why one person is favored and another seems slighted. The answers to these questions go far beyond your comprehension.Collection: Children
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.Collection: Men
Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.Collection: Men
Peace and happiness are what you covet, but these are only to be obtained by labor.Collection: Peace
The better you understand yourself the less cause you will find to love yourself.Collection: Love You
Happy is the man who renounces everything which may bring a stain or burden upon his conscienceCollection: Men
Do not read to satisfy curiosity or to pass the time, but study such things as move your heart to devotion.Collection: Moving
Love is a great thing...which alone maketh every burden light.. Love is watchful, and while sleeping, still keeps watch; though fatigued, it is not weary; though pressed, it is not forced. Love is sincere, gentle, strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, and manly. Love is humble and upright, not weak, not fickle, nor intent on vain things; sober chaste, steadfast, quiet, and guarded in all the senses.Collection: Marriage
Cling, therefore, to Jesus in life and death; trust yourself to the glory of Him who alone can help you when all others fail.Collection: Jesus
A pure, sincere, and stable spirit is not distracted though it be employed in many works; for that it works all to the honor of God, and inwardly being still and quiet, seeks not itself in any thing it doth.Collection: Honor
The more spiritual a man desires to be, the more bitter does his present life become to him; because he sees more clearly and perceives more sensibly the defects of human corruption.Collection: Spiritual
So passes away the glory of this world. ('Sic transit gloria mundi.')Collection: Death
The reflections on a day well spent furnish us with joys more pleasing than ten thousand triumphs.Collection: Happiness
Trust not to friends and kindred, neither do thou put off the care of thy soul's welfare til hereafter; for men will sooner forget thee than thou art aware of.Collection: Art
It is easier not to speak a word at all than to speak more words than we should.Collection: Speak
If you can win complete mastery over self, you will easily master all else. To triumph over self is the perfect victory.Collection: Winning
For nothing, how little soever, that is suffered for God's sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God.Collection: Sight
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.Collection: Love
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.Collection: Love
I would far rather feel remorse than know how to define it.Collection: Sin
If thou hadst simplicity and purity, thou wouldst be able to comprehend all things without error, and behold them without danger. The pure heart safely pervades not only heaven, but hell.Collection: Heart
A man that is well ordered in his soul needeth little the unkind demeanor of worldly people nor yet their proud behavior.Collection: Men
The highest in God's esteem are the lowest in their own.Collection: God
No man ruleth safely but he that is willingly ruled.Collection: Men