Top 250 Thomas à Kempis Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God’s sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God.”

— Thomas à Kempis

52. “Oh, how great peace and quietness would he possess who should cut off all vain anxiety and place all his confidence in God.”

— Thomas à Kempis

53. “What else does anxiety about the future bring you but sorrow upon sorrow?”

— Thomas à Kempis

54. “Whoever finds Jesus, finds a rich treasure, and a good above every good. He who loses Jesus loses much indeed, and more than the whole world. Poorest of all is he who lives without Jesus, and richest of all is he who stands in favor with Jesus.”

— Thomas à Kempis

55. “Cling, therefore, to Jesus in life and death; trust yourself to the glory of Him who alone can help you when all others fail.”

— Thomas à Kempis

56. “A man of peace does more good than a very learned man.”

— Thomas à Kempis

57. “Have therefore zeal to better thyself and then mayst thou have zeal to thy neighbor.”

— Thomas à Kempis

58. “There is no creature so small and abject, that it representeth not the goodness of God.”

— Thomas à Kempis

59. “Temptations discover what you are.”

— Thomas à Kempis

60. “God deceiveth thee not.”

— Thomas à Kempis

61. “Love is a great thing, yea, a great and thorough good. By itself it makes what is heavy light; and bears evenly all that is uneven.”

— Thomas à Kempis

62. “Constantly choose rather to want less, than to have more.”

— Thomas à Kempis

63. “If you would endeavor, like men of courage, to stand in the battle, surely we would feel the favorable assistance of God from heaven. For he who give the us occasion to fight, to the end we may get the victory, is ready to succor those that fight manfully, and do trust in his grace.”

— Thomas à Kempis

64. “The end of all is death and man’s life passeth away suddenly as a shadow.”

— Thomas à Kempis

65. “Love alone makes heavy burdens light and bears in equal balance things pleasing and displeasing. Love bears a heavy burden and does not feel it, and love makes bitter things tasteful and sweet.”

— Thomas à Kempis

66. “We should have much more peace if we would not busy ourselves with the sayings and doings of others.”

— Thomas à Kempis

67. “Simplicity and purity are the two wings by which a man is lifted above all earthly things. Simplicity is in the intention – purity in the affection. Simplicity tends to God,- purity apprehends and tastes Him.”

— Thomas à Kempis

68. “For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.”

— Thomas à Kempis

69. “The enemy is more easily overcome if he be not suffered to enter the door of our hearts, but be resisted without the gate at his first knock.”

— Thomas à Kempis

70. “Thou shalt rest sweetly if thy heart condemn thee not.”

— Thomas à Kempis

71. “Without labor there is no rest, nor without fighting can the victory be won.”

— Thomas à Kempis

72. “Simplicity is the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God, purity unites with and enjoys him.”

— Thomas à Kempis

73. “How seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance with ourselves.”

— Thomas à Kempis

74. “Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame.”

— Thomas à Kempis

75. “Love is swift, sincere, pious, joyful, generous, strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, courageous, and never seeking its own; for wheresoever a person seeketh his own, there he falleth from love...”

— Thomas à Kempis

76. “It is much safer to obey than to rule.”

— Thomas à Kempis

77. “So fixed are our spirits in slothfulness and cold indifference that we seldom overcome so much as one evil habit.”

— Thomas à Kempis

78. “A lover of Jesus and of the truth can lift himself above himself in spirit.”

— Thomas à Kempis

79. “Always keep a good distance between yourself and lying, quarreling, detracting, insulting and gossip. The person who can do that will some day learn to enjoy the silence.”

— Thomas à Kempis

80. “We are sometimes stirred by emotion and take it for zeal.”

— Thomas à Kempis

81. “He is truly great who hath a great charity.”

— Thomas à Kempis

82. “Endeavor to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, of what sort ’soever they be; for that thyself also has many failings which must be borned with by others.”

— Thomas à Kempis

83. “He who knows himself well is mean and abject in his own sight, and takes no delight in the vain praise of men.”

— Thomas à Kempis

84. “He rides pleasantly enough whom the grace of God carries.”

— Thomas à Kempis

85. “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.”

— Thomas à Kempis

86. “If thou hadst a good conscience thou wouldst not greatly fear death.”

— Thomas à Kempis

87. “First keep peace with yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.”

— Thomas à Kempis

88. “If thou be not busy for thyself now, who shall be busy for thee in time to come?”

— Thomas à Kempis

89. “All earthly joy begins pleasantly, but at the end it gnaws and kills.”

— Thomas à Kempis

90. “Pass no rash condemnation on other peoples words or actions.”

— Thomas à Kempis

91. “No man doth safely rule, but he that hath learned gladly to obey.”

— Thomas à Kempis

92. “Whoever would fully and feelingly understand the words of Christ, must endeavor to conform his life wholly to the life of Christ.”

— Thomas à Kempis

93. “O how quickly passes away the glory of the earth.”

— Thomas à Kempis

94. “One who views thing as they are in reality, and not as they are said or thought to be, is truly wise, taught by God rather than by other persons.”

— Thomas à Kempis

95. “If you wish to live in peace and harmony with others, you must learn to discipline yourself in many ways.”

— Thomas à Kempis

96. “He is truly great that is little in himself, and that maketh no account of any height of honors.”

— Thomas à Kempis

97. “No man is without his load of trouble.”

— Thomas à Kempis

98. “Is a man one whit the better because he is grown great in other men’s esteem?”

— Thomas à Kempis

99. “Of two evils, the lesser must always be chosen De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum.”

— Thomas à Kempis

100. “No confict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself.”

— Thomas à Kempis