Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)

Quotes

• Love flies, runs, and rejoices; it is free and nothing can hold it back.

• Be thankful for the least gift, so shalt thou be meant to receive greater.

• Watch for good times to retreat into yourself. Frequently meditate on how good God is to you.

• Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good.

• Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou has many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou are not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?

• First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.

• Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

• And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.

• Of two evils we must always choose the least.

• Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself.

• Remember that lost time does not return.

• The good devout man first makes inner preparation for the actions he has later to perform. His outward actions do not draw him into lust and vice; rather it is he who bends them into the shape of reason and right judgement. Who has a stiffer battle to fight than the man who is striving to conquer himself.