Quotes by Martin Luther
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Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?

To pray well is the better half of study.

The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.

The heart of religion lies in its personal pronouns.

That the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom -- this is the reason for our rejoicing.

One learns more of Christ in being married and rearing children than in several lifetimes spent in study in a monastery.

As concerning faith we ought to be invincible, and more hard, if it might be, than the adamant stone; but as touching charity, we ought to be soft, and more flexible than the reed or leaf that is shaken with the wind, and ready to yield to everything.

Faith, like light, should always be simple and unbending; while love, like warmth, should beam forth on every side, and bend to every necessity of our brethren.

Every occupation has its own honor before God. Ordinary work is a divine vocation or calling. In our daily work no matter how important or mundane we serve God by serving the neighbor and we also participate in God's on-going providence for the human race.

The great unthankfulness, contempt of God's word, and wilfulness of the world, make me fear that the divine light will soon cease to shine on man, for God's word has ever had its certain course.

Even if all the world were to combine forces, they could not bring about the conception of a single child in any woman's womb nor cause it to be born; that is wholly the work of God.

Though in midst of life we be
Snares of death surround us.

Isaiah calls the Church barren because her children are born without effort by the Word of faith through the Spirit of God. It is a matter of birth, not of exertion.

Twas a special gift of God that speech was given to mankind; for through the Word, and not by force, wisdom governs.

The highest and most precious treasure we receive of God is, that we can speak, hear, see, etc.; but how few acknowledge these as God's special gifts, much less give God thanks for them.

The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God. In this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.

The devil and temptations also do give occasion unto us somewhat to learn and understand the Scriptures, by experience and practice. Without trials and temptations we should never understand anything thereof; no, not although we diligently read and heard the same.

I have so many things to do today, I dare not ignore my time with God.

Lord God...use me as Your instrument -- but do not forsake me, for if ever I should be on my own, I would easily wreck it all.

All creatures are merely veils under which God hides Himself and deals with us.

Nothing is more unbecoming to a teacher of the Word than flippancy. He must be serious and should not act like a clown.

God wants us to pray, and he wants to hear our prayers-not because we are worthy, but because he is merciful.

We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

He that has but one word of God before him, and out of that word cannot make a sermon, can never be a preacher.

One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ.

You may as well quit reading and hearing the Word of God, and give it to the devil, if you do not desire to live according to it.

Thus every matter, if it is to be done well, calls for the attention of the whole person.

Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?

There is no gown or garment that worse becomes a woman than when she will be wise.

It cannot, indeed, be denied, that a good man is more worthy of love than a bad one.

To worship God in spirit is the service and homage of the heart, and implies fear of God and trust in Him.

The organ in the worship service is a sign of Baal.

When God contemplates some great work, He begins it by the hand of some poor, weak, human creature, to whom He afterwards gives aid.

The priest is not made. He must be born a priest; must inherit his office. I refer to the new birth-the birth of water and the Spirit. Thus all Christians must became priests, children of God and co-heirs with Christ the Most High Priest.

It is essentially wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know, whether or not the will does any thing in those things which pertain unto Salvation. Nay, let me tell you, this is the very hinge upon which our discussion turns. It is the very heart of the subject.

If it were art to overcome heresy with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth.

Heretics are not to be disputed with, but to be condemned unheard, and whilst they perish by fire, the faithful ought to pursue the evil to its source, and bathe their heads in the blood of the Catholic bishops, and of the Pope, who is the devil in disguise.

Heretics cannot themselves appear good unless they depict the Church as evil, false, and mendacious. They alone wish to be esteemed as the good, but the Church must be made to appear evil in every respect.

All the passages in the Holy Scriptures that mention assistance are they that do away with free-will, and these are countless...For grace is needed, and the help of grace is given, because free-will can do nothing.

The fool will upset the whole science of astronomy, but as the Holy Scripture shows, it was the sun and not the earth which Joshua ordered to stand still.

Let the man who would hear God speak, read Holy Scriptures.

Thus God's work and His eyes are in the depths, but man's only in the height.

The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.

A large number of deaf, crippled and blind people are afflicted solely through the malice of the demon. And one must in no wise doubt that plagues, fevers and every sort of evil come from him.

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing their lies -- that is, longer than two thousand years.

Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should wish to give of his own money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St. Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences cajole money.

What are the things we should pray for? First, our personal troubles...The greatest trouble we can ever know is thinking that we have no trouble for we can become hard-hearted and insensible to what is inside of us.

Whoever sees Christ as a mirror of the Father's heart, actually walks through the world with new eyes.

Of all deadly sins, this is the most deadly, namely, that any one should think he is not guilty of a damnable and deadly sin before God.

Human nature is like a drunk peasant. Lift him into the saddle on one side, over he topples on the other side.

This doctrine (justification) is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.

A penny saved is better than a penny earned.

Prayer, study, and suffering make a pastor.

We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs 'down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.'

Maternity is a glorious thing, since all mankind has been conceived, born, and nourished of women. All human laws should encourage the multiplication of families.

So great are the effectiveness and power of the Word of God that the more it is persecuted the more it flourishes and grows.

I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.

How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God.

Whoever wishes to be a Christian, let him pluck out the eyes of his reason.

In many countries there are particular places to which devils more especially resort. In Prussia there is an infinite number of evil spirits.

Demons live in many lands, but particularly in Prussia.

The Psalms are a Little Bible, wherein everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended.

Music is to be praised as second only to the Word of God because by her all the emotions are swayed. That is why there are so many songs and psalms. This precious gift has been bestowed on men alone to remind them that they are created to praise and magnify the Lord.

That is what Reason can neither grasp nor endure, and what has offended all these men of outstanding talent who have been so received for so many centuries. Here they demand that God should act according to human justice, and do what seems right to them or else cease to be God.

The great event on Calvary ... is an eternal reminder to a power drunk generation that love is the most durable power in the world, and that it is at bottom the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. Only through achieving this love can you expect to matriculate into the university of eternal life.

I ask for the Scripture, and Eck offers me the Fathers. I ask for the sun, and he shows me his lanterns. I ask, where is your Scripture proof? and he adduces Ambrose and Cyril... With all due respect to the Fathers, I prefer the authority of Scripture.

Our Lord God doeth work like a printer who setteth the letters backwards; we see and feel well his setting, but we shall see the print yonder -- in the life to come.

He who wholly renounces himself, and relies not on mere human reason, will make good progress in the Scriptures; but the world comprehends them not, from ignorance of that mortification which is the gift of God's word.

Many sweat to reconcile St Paul and St James, but in vain. 'Faith justifies' and 'faith does not justify' contradict each other flatly. If any one can harmonize them I will give him my doctor's hood and let him call me a fool.

Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

There is no rustic so rude but that, if he dreams or fancies anything, it must be the whisper of the Holy Ghost, and he himself a prophet.

For I shall never advise a heathen or a Turk, let alone a Christian, to attack another or begin war.

The slender capacity of man's heart cannot comprehend the unfathomable depth and burning zeal of God's love toward us.

Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometime hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. With this powerful gospel we shall boldly challenge the status quo.

I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people joyful; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor.

God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.

Your work is a very sacred matter. God delights in it, and through it, He wants to best His blessings on you. This praise of work should be inscribed on all tools, on the forehead and the faces that sweat from toiling.

Cannons and fire-arms are cruel and damnable machines; I believe them to have been the direct suggestion of the Devil. If Adam had seen in a vision the horrible instruments his children were to invent, he would have died of grief.

If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God's will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.

Grace remits sin, and peace quiets the conscience. Sin and conscience torment us, but Christ has overcome these fiends now and forever.

Our suffering is not worthy the name of suffering. When I consider my crosses, tribulations, and temptations, I shame myself almost to death, thinking what are they in
comparison of the sufferings of my blessed Savior Christ Jesus.

Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song.

Faith is a free surrenderand a joyous wager on the unseen, unknown, untested goodness of God.

That which the sober man keeps in his breast, the drunken man lets out at the lips. Astute people, when they want to ascertain a man's true character, make him drunk.

The Holy Ghost has called me by the gospel and illuminated me with his gifts and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith.