Thomas A Kempis 1.16 - Patience with others' faults

In some things, it is truly rare for a man to be able to improve himself or others, so he should endure patiently until God orders otherwise. Think how it may be better for your patience, because untested merits are unproven. You should then plead that God, who is worthy, may come to your aid in such trials so that you can endure them well and kindly. 

If someone who is warned once or twice does not listen, don't keep arguing, but let go and give it to God, that His will may be done and His honor be shown in all his servants. He knows well how to turn evil into good. Commit yourself and learn to be patient in tolerating others' faults and whatever weaknesses they may have, because you too have plenty of faults that must be tolerated by others. If you cannot make yourself into the person you want to be, how would you be able to turn someone else into what you wish? We are eager to see others made perfect, and yet we don't amend our own faults. 

We want others to be corrected strictly, but we will not be corrected ourselves or be denied what we ask. We want laws passed to restrain others, but will not tolerate being restrained ourselves in any way. It's clear enough that we rarely think of our neighbors in the same way as ourselves. If we were all perfect, then what would we have to suffer from others for God?

But now God has ordained, so let us learn, to bear one another’s burdens because none is without defect, none without a burden, none sufficient for himself, none wise enough by himself; so we bear with each other, comfort each other, as well has helping and warning each other. Adversity is an occasion to prove our strengths. For such occasions do not make a man weak, but they reveal it.

Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis, 1.16

Translation focused on contemporary English and preservation of rhetorical force and art