Quotes from Thomas a Kempis

If, with a single glance, you could see everything in the world spread out before your eyes, how fruitless a sight that would be! Raise your eyes to God on high and pray for your sins and deficiencies.

Occasions of adversity best discover how great virtue or strength each one hath. For occasions do not make a man frail, but they reveal what he is.

Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands.

The man who is not yet wholly dead to self, is soon tempted, and is overcome in small and trifling matters.

The spiritually-minded man putteth care of himself before all cares; and he who diligently attendeth to himself easily keepeth silence concerning others. Thou wilt never be spiritually minded and godly unless thou art silent concerning other men's matters and take full heed to thyself. If thou think wholly upon thyself and upon God, what thou seest out of doors shall move thee little. Where art thou when thou art not present to thyself?

To walk inwardly with God, and not to be held by any outer affections, is the state of a spiritual man.

The Christ speaks: Wherever you are, whatever you do, you will be restless until you turn to God. Does it upset you when a day doesn't go according to your plan? Is there anyone who has everything for which one could wish? No, not one. Kings and popes are not exempt. Disappointment affects everyone. Doldrums corner even the most devout unless they are among the few who are able to endure hardship willingly without complaining.

The Voice of Christ: My child, this is the disposition which you should have if you wish to walk with Me. You should be as ready to suffer as to enjoy. You should as willingly be destitute and poor as rich and satisfied.

Seek, child, to do the will of others rather than your own. Always choose to have less rather than more. Look always for the last place and seek to be beneath all others. Always wish and pray that the will of God be fully carried out in you. Behold, such will enter into the realm of peace and rest.

I am He Who teaches man to despise earthly possessions and to loathe present things, to ask after the eternal, to hunger for heaven, to fly honors and to bear with scandals, to place all hope in Me, to desire nothing apart from Me, and to love Me ardently above all things.

The fewer there are who follow the way to perfection, the harder that way is to find

If you take on too much, your overcommitted schedules will become monsters that interfere with my agenda for you.