Martin Luther Quotes
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I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.
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If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.
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Prayer, study, and suffering make a pastor.
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By faith we began, by hope we continue, and by revelation we shall obtain the whole.
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The Clergy is the greatest hindrance to faith.
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The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery. Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them out of clay.
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Ambition begat simony; simony begat the pope and his brethren, about the time of the Babylonish captivity.
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Some plague the people with too long sermons; for the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated.
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God wants us to pray, and he wants to hear our prayers-not because we are worthy, but because he is merciful.
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On the Ninety-five Theses:
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If the gospel was of a nature to be propagated or maintained by the power of the world, God would not have intrusted it to fishermen. To defend the gospel appertains not to the princes and pontiffs of this world.
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What shall we do with...the Jews?...their homes also should be razed and destroyed.
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It is not necessary for a preacher to express all his thoughts in one sermon. A preacher should have three principles: first, to make a good beginning, and not spend time with many words before coming to the point; secondly, to say that which belongs to the subject in chief, and avoid strange and foreign thoughts; thirdly, to stop at the proper time.
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God's love gives in such a way that it flows from a Father's heart, the well-spring of all good. The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious; as among ourselves we say of even a trifling gift, "It comes from a hand we love," and look not so much at the gift as at the heart.
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Adam and Eve derived the fullness of joy and bliss from their contemplation of all the animal creatures.
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The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that he sunk himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.
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I hate myself, that I cannot believe it so constantly and surely as I should; but no human creature can rightly know how mercifully God is inclined toward those that steadfastly believe in Christ.
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If ever the church is to flourish again, one must begin by instructing the young.
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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.
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Some will object that the Law is divine and holy. Let it be divine and holy. The Law has no right to tell me that I must be justified by it.
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Each betrayal begins with trust.
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God the Almighty has made our rulers mad; they actually think they can do—and order their subjects to do—whatever they please. And the subjects make the mistake of believing that they, in turn, are bound to obey their rulers in everything.
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If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them.
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Regarding the plan to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one On the Bound Will and the Catechism.