Top 250 Thomas à Kempis Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Wherever you go, there you are.”

— Thomas à Kempis

2. “Out of sight, out of mind. The absent are always in the wrong.”

— Thomas à Kempis

3. “Man proposes, but God disposes.”

— Thomas à Kempis

4. “God is able to do more than man can understand.”

— Thomas à Kempis

5. “Man sees your actions, but God your motives.”

— Thomas à Kempis

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

— Thomas à Kempis

7. “Habit is overcome by habit.”

— Thomas à Kempis

8. “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.”

— Thomas à Kempis

9. “If you carry your cross joyfully, it will carry you.”

— Thomas à Kempis

10. “Do not interfere when your opinion is not sought.”

— Thomas à Kempis

11. “The Lord has many lovers of His crown but few lovers of His Cross.”

— Thomas à Kempis

12. “Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.”

— Thomas à Kempis

13. “If you can win complete mastery over self, you will easily master all else. To triumph over self is the perfect victory.”

— Thomas à Kempis

14. “For man plans, but God arranges.”

— Thomas à Kempis

15. “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 à Kempis

16. “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.”

— Thomas à Kempis

17. “When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs.”

— Thomas à Kempis

18. “Now is the time to be doing, now is the time to be stirring, now is the time to amend myself.”

— Thomas à Kempis

19. “The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does.”

— Thomas à Kempis

20. “Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself.”

— Thomas à Kempis

21. “Remember always your end, and that lost time does not return.”

— Thomas à Kempis

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.”

— Thomas à Kempis

23. “Occasions do not make a man either strong or weak but they show what he is.”

— Thomas à Kempis

24. “We must imitate Christ’s life and his ways if we are to be truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts. Let it be the most important thing we do, then, to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ.”

— Thomas à Kempis

25. “I have sought for happiness everywhere, but I have found it nowhere except in a little corner with a little book.”

— Thomas à Kempis

26. “Let temporal things serve thy use, but the eternal be the object of thy desire.”

— Thomas à Kempis

27. “If we live in peace ourselves, we in turn may bring peace to others. A peaceable man does more good than a learned one.”

— Thomas à Kempis

28. “All men commend patience, although few are willing to practice it.”

— Thomas à Kempis

29. “Wheresoever we seek our own, there we fall from love.”

— Thomas à Kempis

30. “Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing more courageous, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller nor better in heaven and earth; because love is born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created things.”

— Thomas à Kempis

31. “The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.”

— Thomas à Kempis

32. “The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.”

— Thomas à Kempis

33. “Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.”

— Thomas à Kempis

34. “Set me free from evil passions, and heal my heart of all inordinate affections; that being inwardly cured and thoroughly cleansed, I may be made fit to love, courageous to suffer, steady to persevere.”

— Thomas à Kempis

35. “You will never be an inwardly religious and devout man unless you pass over in silence the shortcomings of your fellow men, and diligently examine your own weaknesses.”

— Thomas à Kempis

36. “O Lord, you know what is best for me. Let this or that be done, as you please. Give what you will, how much you will, and when you will.”

— Thomas à Kempis

37. “The reflections on a day well spent furnish us with joys more pleasing than ten thousand triumphs.”

— Thomas à Kempis

38. “A life without purpose is a languid, drifting thing; Every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves: This day let me make a sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is naught!”

— Thomas à Kempis

39. “Be thankful for the smallest blessing and you will deserve to receive greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest, and simple graces as especial favors. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean.”

— Thomas à Kempis

40. “Carry the cross patiently, and with perfect submission; and in the end it shall carry you.”

— Thomas à Kempis

41. “Ah, Lord God, thou holy lover of my soul, when thou comest into my heart, all that is within me shall rejoice.”

— Thomas à Kempis

42. “Leave off that excessive desire of knowing; therein is found much distraction. There are many things the knowledge of which is of little or no profit to the soul.”

— Thomas à Kempis

43. “Let this be thy whole endeavor, this thy prayer, this thy desire,-that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only.”

— Thomas à Kempis

44. “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 à Kempis

45. “It is no little wisdom for you to keep yourself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to you, and to turn your heart to God and not to be troubled with the judgment of others.”

— Thomas à Kempis

46. “We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.”

— Thomas à Kempis

47. “Of two evils we must always choose the least.”

— Thomas à Kempis

48. “The highest in God’s esteem are the lowest in their own.”

— Thomas à Kempis

49. “Love is a great thing, a good above all others, which alone maketh every burden light.”

— Thomas à Kempis

50. “If thou wilt receive profit, read with humility, simplicity and faith, and seek not at any time the fame of being learned.”

— Thomas à Kempis