Humility, the Foundation of Culture

Pone te semper ad infimum, et dabitur tibi summum: nam summum non stat sine infimo (Cf. Luke 14:10). De imitatione Christi, Turonibus: Mame, 1900, II, X, 4.

Put thyself always in the lowest place, and the highest shall be given thee, for the highest stands not without the lowest. Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Rockford: Tan, 1989, II, X, 4.

Ponte siempre en lo más bajo, y se te dará lo alto; porque no está lo muy alto sin lo más bajo. Tomás Kempis, Imitación de Cristo, Madrid: Coculsa, 1961, II, X, 4.

Setze du dich immer gern an die unterste Stelle, und es wird dir die oberste angewiesen werden. Denn das Oberste hat ohne das Unterste keinen festen Boden, auf dem es ruht. Thomas von Kempen, Nachfolge Christi, übersetz. Sailer, Freiburg: Herder, 1913, II, X, 4.

Mettez-vous toujours à la dernière place, et la première vous sera donnée; car ce qui est le plus élevé s'appuie sur ce qui est le plus bas. L'imitation de Jesus-Christ, Paris: Le club français du livre, 1950, II, X, 4.

For which is greater, he that sitteth at table, or he that serveth? Is it not he that sitteth at table? But I am in the midst of you, as he that serveth. Luke 22:27

So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the earth, and should sleep, and rise, night and day, and the seed should spring, and grow up whilst he knoweth not. Mark 4:26-27

Cf. Father Francis Bethel, John Senior and the Restoration of Realism, Merrimack: New Hampshire: Thomas More College Press, 2016, 211-213.