The collection / 211 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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211 results · Page 9 of 9Play this collection ▷

01c. 1425 AD

If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for God's sake? But God has so ordained, that we may learn to bear with one another's burdens, for there is no man without fault, no man without burden, no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough. Hence we must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise, for the measure of every man's virtue is best revealed in time of adversity -- adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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02c. 1425 AD

It happens very often that those whom men esteem highly are more seriously endangered by their own excessive confidence. Hence, for many it is better not to be too free from temptations, but often to be tried lest they become too secure, too filled with pride, or even too eager to fall back upon external comforts.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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03c. 1425 AD

My God, Sweetness beyond words, make bitter all the carnal comfort that draws me from love of the eternal and lures me to its evil self by the sight of some delightful good in the present. Let it not overcome me, my God. Let not flesh and blood conquer me. Let not the world and its brief glory deceive me, nor the devil trip me by his craftiness. Give me courage to resist, patience to endure, and constancy to persevere. Give me the soothing unction of Your spirit rather than all the consolations of the world, and in place of carnal love, infuse into me the love of Your name.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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04c. 1425 AD

When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An unmortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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05c. 1425 AD

Let temporal things be in the use, eternal things in the desire.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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06c. 1425 AD

0 true and heavenly grace, without which our own merits are nothing, and our natural gifts of no account! Neither arts nor riches, beauty nor strength, genius nor eloquence have any value in Your eyes, Lord, unless allied to grace. For the gifts of nature are common to good men and bad alike, but grace or love are Your especial gift to those whom You choose, and those who are sealed with this are counted worthy of life everlasting.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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07c. 1425 AD

The Lord bestows his blessings there, where he finds the vessels empty.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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08c. 1425 AD

If you desire to know or learn anything to your advantage, then take delight in being unknown and unregarded.A true understanding and humble estimate of oneself is the highest and most valuable of all lessons. To take no account of oneself, but always to think well and highly of others is the highest wisdom and perfection.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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09c. 1425 AD

Remain tranquil and prepare to bear still greater trials. All is not lost even though you be troubled oftener or tempted more grievously. You are a man, not God. You are flesh, not an angel. How can you possibly expect to remain always in the same state of virtue when the angels in heaven and the first man in paradise failed to do so? I am He Who rescues the afflicted and brings to My divinity those who know their own weakness.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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10c. 1425 AD

Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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11c. 1425 AD

He is not truly patient who will only suffer as far as seems right to him and from whom he pleases. The truly patient man considers not by whom he is tried, one above him, or by an equal, or by an inferior, whether by a good and holy man or by a perverse and unworthy, but from every creature. He gratefully accepts all from the hand of God and counts it gain.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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12c. 1425 AD

God often grants in a moment what He has long denied.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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13c. 1425 AD

Greater is Your care for me than all the care I am able to take from myself.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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14c. 1425 AD

If thou art willing to suffer no adversity, how wilt thou be the friend of Christ?

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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15c. 1425 AD

At the Day of Judgement we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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16c. 1425 AD

A man who truly knows himself realizes his own worthlessness, and takes no pleasure in the praises of men.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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17c. 1425 AD

It is not really a small thing when in small things we resist self.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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18c. 1425 AD

Not every affection which seems good is to be immediately followed. Neither is every opposite affection to be immediately avoided. Sometimes it is expedient to use restraint even in good desires and wishes, lest through importunity you fall into distraction of mind, lest through want of discipline you become a stumbling block to others.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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19c. 1425 AD

A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.

Thomas À Kempis / quote

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