Martin Luther Quotes
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If ever the church is to flourish again, one must begin by instructing the young.
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The hair is the finest ornament women have. Of old, virgins used to wear it loose, except when they were in mourning.
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Every week I preach justification by faith to my people, because every week they forget it.
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Merit is a work for the sake of which Christ gives rewards. But no such work is to be found, for Christ gives by promise. Just as if a prince should say to me, "Come to me in my castle, and I will give you a hundred florins." I do a work, certainly, in going to the castle, but the gift is not given me as the reward of my work in going, but because the prince promised it to me.
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The devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God....Music is a gift and grace of God, not an invention of men. Thus it drives out the devil and makes people cheerful. Then one forgets all wrath, impurity, and other devices.
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I am entirely of the opinion that the papacy is the Antichrist. But if anyone wants to add the Turk, then the Pope is the spirit of the Antichrist, and the Turk is the flesh of the Antichrist. They help each other in their murderous work. The latter slaughters bodily and by the sword, the former spiritually and by doctrine.
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I cannot forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict Scripture.
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It is not the imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators.
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Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.
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I must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and am glad so to remain.
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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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If the heart has been reformed by the spirit, it makes use of both the useful and delightful things created and given by God in a holy manner and with thanksgiving.
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It is an unsufferable blasphemy to reject the public ministry or to say that people can become holy without sermons and Church. This involves a destruction of the Church and rebellion against ecclesiastical order; such upheavals must be warded off and punished like all other revolts.
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It is the nature of all hypocrites and false prophets to create a conscience where there is none, and to cause conscience to disappear where it does exist.
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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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The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.
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The authority of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man's reason.
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The more a person loves, the closer he approaches the image of God.
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He that has but one word of God before him, and out of that word cannot make a sermon, can never be a preacher.
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No man understands the Scriptures, unless he be acquainted with the Cross.
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If we Christians would join the Wise Men, we must close our eyes to all that glitters before the world and look rather on the despised and foolish things, help the poor, comfort the despised, and aid the neighbor in his need.
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All laws and philosophy merely tell us what should be done, but they do not provide the strength to do it.
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Whilst a man is persuaded that he has it in his power to contribute anything, be it ever so little, to his salvation, he remains in carnal self-confidence; he is not a self-despairer, and therefore is not duly humbled before God, he believes he may lend a helping hand in his salvation, but on the contrary, whoever is truly convinced that the whole work depends singly on the will of God, such a person renounces his own will and strength; he waits and prays for the operation of God, nor waits and prays in vain.
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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.