Thomas a Kempis Quotes

Whenever you're feeling grateful, you are not feeling frustrated and angry and all those negative states that we go into. And that's a big benefit in and of itself.

Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.

Young men, I beseech you earnestly, beware of pride. Two things are said to be very rare sights in the world- one is a young man that is humble, and the other is an old man that is content. I fear that this is only too true.

A heart filled with anger has no room for love.

The kind of experience of humility and happiness that comes with gratitude tends to crowd out whatever is coarse, or ugly, or mean.

I guess happiness is not a state you want to be in all the time.

Above all, you must fight conceit, envy, and every kind of ill-feeling in your heart.

I started realizing how the condition of our hearts affects the way we see. If your heart is full of bitterness, anger, and resentment, you're going to look at this world as a very evil place.

Happiness cannot come from hatred or anger. Nobody can say, 'Today I am happy because this morning I was angry.' On the contrary, people feel uneasy and sad and say, 'Today I am not very happy, because I lost my temper this morning.'

Anger cannot rest in the bosom where love reigns.

Why bear malice? Just let it go. So what of pride? It will swallow you whole.

Hell is in the here and now. So is Heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside us this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy, or fight someone, we tumble straight into the fires of hell.

I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.

Jesus had a humble heart. If He abides in us, pride will never dominate our lives.

A man who values a good night's rest will not lie down with enmity in his heart, if he can help it.

It is not possible to achieve by vigilance in anger and revenge what the soul is longing for. The soul longs for peace.

I am not saying that I am different, but I don't have emotional pain. I may be angry and I may be peaceful, but no emotional pain.

I had to learn to forgive. I couldn't sleep at night. I got ulcers. I had to let go, to let God deal with it. No one wants to be mad in their own house. I didn't want to be angry my whole life. It takes so much energy out of you to be mean.

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.

I don't have the feeling of being motivated by anger, revenge or frustration.

I fed my ego, but not my soul.

It's not people who resent successful people; it's resentful people who resent successful people.

Tell him, on the contrary, that he needs, in the interest of his own happiness, to walk in the path of humility and self-control, and he will be indifferent, or even actively resentful.

My faith helps me overcome such negative emotions and find my equilibrium.