Thomas a Kempis Quotes

In the supremacy of self-control consists one of the perfections of the ideal man.

Self-Conquest is the greatest of victories. Mighty is he who conquers himself.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.

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

Every time I say 'no' to a small temptation, I strengthen my will to say 'no' to a greater one.

Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.

Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat; Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.

We should make virtue our master, not our servant.

The hardest victory is the victory over self.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories... The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.

Self conquest is the greatest of victories.

One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand on the battlefield.

Virtue does not consist in the absence of the passions, but in the control of them.

Training the will in trivial and grave matters increases its strength and flexibility, and enables man to constantly strive and persevere.

This work somehow awakened my dormant powers of will and I began to practice self-control. At first my resolutions faded like snow in April, but in a little while I conquered my weakness and felt a pleasure I never knew before - that of doing as I willed.

To gain the spiritual ascendancy over ourselves, and the influences with which we are surrounded, through a rigid course of self-discipline, is our first consideration, it is our first labor, before we can pave the way for our children to grow up without sin unto salvation.

To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a virtue, but the groundwork of virtue.

Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you

The first and the best victory is to conquer self.

Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasure, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime that ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer.