Thomas à Kempis Quotes: Sources, Meanings & Themes
Browse quotations by Thomas à Kempis with named works, context notes, meanings and recurring themes.
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“Give thanks unto God for His grace, but for thyself alone confess thy fault.”
Meaning & context
The sentence separates gratitude from self-congratulation: what is received as grace is answered with thanks, while personal failure remains something to examine rather than disguise with spiritual pride.
Source details
The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter X, “Of gratitude for the Grace of God,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653. The sentence appears in the third paragraph, distinguishing thanks for grace from confession of one’s own fault within the work’s Christian theology of grace and humility.
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“Be thankful, therefore, for the least benefit and thou shalt be worthy to receive greater.”
Meaning & context
The devotional instruction treats gratitude as a discipline of scale: small benefits should not disappear merely because larger gifts are desired, since attention to what is received is itself part of humility.
Source details
The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter X, “Of gratitude for the Grace of God,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653. The sentence appears in the chapter’s fifth paragraph and treats gratitude for even the least divine benefit as part of humility; this remains explicitly Christian devotional teaching rather than a general promise of material reward.
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“First keep thyself in peace, and then shalt thou be able to be a peacemaker towards others.”
Meaning & context
The devotional instruction makes inward steadiness prior to outward peacemaking: a person who is internally ruled by agitation will struggle to reduce conflict in relationships around them.
Source details
The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter III, “Of the good, peaceable man,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653.
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“Those things which a man cannot amend in himself or in others, he ought patiently to bear, until God shall otherwise ordain.”
Meaning & context
The devotional advice separates attempted correction from patient endurance: when a fault cannot presently be changed, continued struggle to control it may need to give way to forbearance.
Source details
The Imitation of Christ, Book I, Chapter XVI, “Of bearing with the faults of others,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653. The chapter advises patiently bearing what cannot presently be amended while also urging prayer and mutual forbearance; it remains Christian devotional counsel rather than permission to tolerate preventable harm.
