"What difference does it make to you what someone else becomes, or says, or does? You do not need to answer for others, only for yourself"
About this Quote
A Kempis is doing something quietly radical here: stripping away the social itch to police other people and calling it what it is, a distraction dressed up as responsibility. The question lands like a moral cold shower. What difference does it make to you? Not in the modern, hands-off sense of indifference, but in the monastic sense of focus. Your attention is a finite spiritual resource; spend it on gossip, judgment, and comparison, and you have less left for the only project you can actually complete: your own integrity.
The intent is diagnostic. He’s naming the way we outsource self-scrutiny by turning other people into case studies. Their failures become our entertainment; their choices become our court docket. The subtext is sharper than it first appears: moral outrage can be a form of vanity. It lets you feel righteous without the inconvenience of repentance.
Context matters. Thomas a Kempis, writing in the devotional current that produced The Imitation of Christ, is shaped by a medieval Christian worldview where salvation is personal and account-giving is individual. “You do not need to answer for others” is less a permission slip to withdraw than a reminder of jurisdiction: you can advise, you can correct when it’s your place, but you can’t live someone else’s life or stand at their judgment.
The rhetoric works because it’s both consoling and indicting. Consoling, because it releases you from the exhausting fantasy of control. Indicting, because it removes your favorite alibi: if you’re not responsible for others, you’re out of excuses for yourself.
The intent is diagnostic. He’s naming the way we outsource self-scrutiny by turning other people into case studies. Their failures become our entertainment; their choices become our court docket. The subtext is sharper than it first appears: moral outrage can be a form of vanity. It lets you feel righteous without the inconvenience of repentance.
Context matters. Thomas a Kempis, writing in the devotional current that produced The Imitation of Christ, is shaped by a medieval Christian worldview where salvation is personal and account-giving is individual. “You do not need to answer for others” is less a permission slip to withdraw than a reminder of jurisdiction: you can advise, you can correct when it’s your place, but you can’t live someone else’s life or stand at their judgment.
The rhetoric works because it’s both consoling and indicting. Consoling, because it releases you from the exhausting fantasy of control. Indicting, because it removes your favorite alibi: if you’re not responsible for others, you’re out of excuses for yourself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
|---|
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
