(c.1379–August 8, 1471), was an Augustinian friar at Zwolle in the Netherlands, who wrote the devotional, On the Imitation of Christ, 1420. This work has greatly influenced western writers, including: Martin Luther, Samuel Johnson, George Eliot and Lamartine. In Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis wrote:
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.18
Man proposes, but God disposes.19
Love is swift, sincere, pious, pleasant, gentle, strong, patient, faithful, prudent, longsuffering, manly and never seeking her own; for wheresoever a man seeketh his own, there he falleth from love.20
Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller or better in heaven or in earth; for love is born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created things.21