by Thomas Kempis

Do not regard much who is with you or who is against you, but let this be your greatest study: that God may be with you in everything that you do.

Have a good conscience, and He will defend you well, and no evil will hinder or grieve the man God will help and defend. If you can be quiet and suffer for a while, you will, without doubt, see the help of God come in your need. He knows the time and place to deliver you, and therefore you must resign yourself wholly to Him. It is God's concern to help and to deliver from all confusion.

Nevertheless, it is very profitable to us for the surer protection of humility that other men know our faults and rebuke us from them. When a man humbles himself for his offenses he easily pleases others, and reconciles himself to them whom he has offended. Almighty God defends and comforts the humble man. He inclines Himself to the humble, and sends him plenty of His grace. God also shows His secrets to the humble man, and lovingly draws him to Himself, and after oppression He lifts him up to glory. When the humble man has suffered confusion and rebuke, he is in good peace, for he trusts God, and not the world.

Moreover, if you will come to the height of perfection, do not think that you have advanced in virtue until you can feel humbly in you heart that you have less humility and less virtue than anyone else. Without humility a man or a woman is like a tree without roots, a lake without water and a mother without a child.