Chapter 44. Of not troubling ourselves about outward things (Book 3. On Inward Consolation as a Gift of God) (The Imitation of Christ) (a-Kempis, Thomas)

1. "My Son, in many things it behoves you to be ignorant, and to esteem yourself as one dead upon the earth, and as one to whom the whole world is crucified. Many things also you must pass by with deaf ear, and must rather think upon those things which belong to your peace. It is more profitable to turn away your eyes from those things that displease, and to leave each man to his own opinion, than to give yourself to discourses of strife. If you stand well with God and have His judgment in your mind, you will truly easily bear to be as one conquered."

2. O Lord, to what have we come? Behold a temporal loss is mourned over; for a trifling gain we labour and hurry; and spiritual loss passes away into forgetfulness, and we rarely recover it. That which profits little or nothing is looked after, and that which is altogether necessary is negligently passed by; because the whole man slides away to outward things, and unless he quickly recoveres himself in outward things he willingly lies down.