Top 250 Thomas à Kempis Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace.”

— Thomas à Kempis

102. “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.”

— Thomas à Kempis

103. “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?”

— Thomas à Kempis

104. “Oh, how quickly the world’s glory passes away.”

— Thomas à Kempis

105. “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.”

— Thomas à Kempis

106. “Bodily exercises are to be done discreetly; not to be taken evenly and alike by all men.”

— Thomas à Kempis

107. “Always be thou prepared, and so live that death may never find thee unprepared.”

— Thomas à Kempis

108. “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.”

— Thomas à Kempis

109. “Restrain an inordinate desire for knowledge, in which is found much anxiety and deception. Learned men always wish to appear so, and desire recognition of their wisdom. But there are many matters, knowledge of which brings little or no advantage to the soul.”

— Thomas à Kempis

110. “And when he is out of sight, quickly also he is out of mind.”

— Thomas à Kempis

111. “He is truly great that is great in charity. He is truly great that is little in himself, and maketh no account of any height of honor. And he is truly learned that doeth the will of God, and forsaketh his own will.”

— Thomas à Kempis

112. “If God were our one and only desire we would not be so easily upset when our opinions do not find outside acceptance.”

— Thomas à Kempis

113. “He does much who loves God much, and he does much who does his deed well, and he does his deed well who does it rather for the common good than for his own will.”

— Thomas à Kempis

114. “All men are frail; but thou shouldst reckon none so frail as thyself.”

— Thomas à Kempis

115. “It is much safer to be subject than it is to command. Many live in obedience more from necessity than from love. Such become discontented and dejected on the slightest pretext; they will never gain peace of mind unless they subject themselves wholeheartedly for the love of God.”

— Thomas à Kempis

116. “But because many endeavor to get knowledge rather than to live well, they are often deceived and reap little or no benefit from their labor.”

— Thomas à Kempis

117. “Do not read to satisfy curiosity or to pass the time, but study such things as move your heart to devotion.”

— Thomas à Kempis

118. “It is vanity to desire a long life and to take no heed of a good life.”

— Thomas à Kempis

119. “By two wings a man is lifted up from things earthly: by simplicity and purity.”

— Thomas à Kempis

120. “Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.”

— Thomas à Kempis

121. “What thou art, that thou art.”

— Thomas à Kempis

122. “Two wings lift a person up from earthly concerns: Simplicity in intention, and Purity in feeling.”

— Thomas à Kempis

123. “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.”

— Thomas à Kempis

124. “Few spirits are made better by the pain and languor of sickness; as few great pilgrims become eminent saints.”

— Thomas à Kempis

125. “Blessed are the simple, for they shall have much peace.”

— Thomas à Kempis

126. “God often gives in one brief moment that which He has for a long time denied.”

— Thomas à Kempis

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

— Thomas à Kempis

128. “Be Yourself -The man who is neither bent upon pleasing his fellows nor afraid of offending them will enjoy great peace.”

— Thomas à Kempis

129. “O Lord, self-renunciation is not the work of one day, nor children’s sport; yea, rather in this word is included all perfection.”

— Thomas à Kempis

130. “Wait for the Lord. Behave yourself manfully, and be of good courage. Do not be faithless, but stay in your place and do not turn back.”

— Thomas à Kempis

131. “Both above and below, without and within, which way so ever thou dost turn thee, everywhere thou shalt find the Cross; and everywhere of necessity thou must hold fast patience, if thou wilt have inward peace, and enjoy an everlasting crown.”

— Thomas à Kempis

132. “For it is the grace of Christ, and not our own virtue, that gives us the power to overcome the flesh and the world.”

— Thomas à Kempis

133. “Love Him, and keep Him for thy Friend, who, when all go away, will not forsake thee, nor suffer thee to perish at the last.”

— Thomas à Kempis

134. “As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.”

— Thomas à Kempis

135. “He that avoideth not small faults, by little and little falleth into greater.”

— Thomas à Kempis

136. “A sure way of retaining the grace of heaven is to disregard outward appearances, and diligently to cultivate such things as foster amendment of life and fervour of soul, rather than to cultivate those qualities that seem most popular.”

— Thomas à Kempis

137. “He does much who loves much.”

— Thomas à Kempis

138. “Judge yourself and beware of passing judgement on others. In judging others we expend our energy to no purpose; we are often mistaken and easily sin. But if we judge ourselves our labour is always to our profit.”

— Thomas à Kempis

139. “Be assured that if you knew all, you would pardon all.”

— Thomas à Kempis

140. “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

141. “Wherever you go, you will always bear yourself about with you, and so you will always find yourself.”

— Thomas à Kempis

142. “Renounce all things, and thou shalt find all things; give up thy lust, and thou shalt find rest.”

— Thomas à Kempis

143. “The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss.”

— Thomas à Kempis

144. “And if thy heart be straight with God then every creature shall be to thee a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine for there is no creature so little or so despised but that sheweth and representeth the goodness of God.”

— Thomas à Kempis

145. “Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will be worthy to receive greater.”

— Thomas à Kempis

146. “He who loves with purity considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver.”

— Thomas à Kempis

147. “Love flies, runs, and rejoices; it is free and nothing can hold it back.”

— Thomas à Kempis

148. “Every man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God? Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars.”

— Thomas à Kempis

149. “The more spiritual a man desires to be, the more bitter does this present life become to him, because he perceives better and sees more clearly the defects of human corruption.”

— Thomas à Kempis

150. “The more the flesh is wasted by affliction, so much more is the Spirit strengthened by inward grace.”

— Thomas à Kempis