Martin Luther Quotes
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Christian living does not mean to be good but to become good; not to be well, but to get well; not being but becoming; nor rest but training. We are not yet, but we shall be. It has not yet happened, but it is the way. Not everything shines and sparkles as yet, but everything is getting better.
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Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.
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This is the reason why our Theology is certain: because it seizes us from ourselves and places us outside ourselves.
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Father and Mother are apostles, bishops and priests to their children, for it is they who make them acquainted with the gospel.
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To progress is always to begin always to begin again.
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But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.
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I did not learn my theology all at once, but had to search constantly deeper and deeper for it. My temptations did that for me, for no one can understand Holy Scripture without practice and temptations...I t is not by reading, writing, or speculation that one becomes a theologian. Nay, rather, it is living, dying, and being damned that makes one a theologian.
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It hath been said, that there is of nothing so much in hell as of self-will. The which is true, for there is nothing else there than self-will, and if there were no self-will, there would be no Devil and no hell. When it is said that Lucifer fell from Heaven, and turned away from God and the like, it meaneth nothing else than that he would have his own will, and would not be at one with the Eternal Will. So was it likewise with Adam in Paradise. And when we say Self-will, we mean, to will otherwise than as the One and Eternal Will of God willeth.
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Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
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God created Adam lord of all living creatures, but Eve spoiled it all.
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Before every great opportunity God gave me a great trial.
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What shall we do with...the Jews?...I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews.
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I only ask in all kindness that the man who wishes at this time to have my books will by no means let them be a hindrance to his own study of the Scriptures, but read them as I read the orders and the ordures of the pope and the books of the sophists.
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Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools.
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Whenever the true message of the cross is abolished, the anger of hypocrites and heretics eases and all things seem to be at peace.
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In Romans 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart.
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An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects.
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Despair makes priests and friars.
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What would it matter if, for the sake of the Christian Church, one were to tell a big lie?
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God is not hostile to sinners, but only to unbelievers.
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At the last, when we die, we have the dear angels for our escort on the way. They who can grasp the whole world in their hands can surely also guard our souls, that they make that last journey safely.
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Lord, grant that anger or other bitterness does not reign over us, but that your grace, genuine kindness, loyalty, and every kind of friendliness, generosity, and gentleness may reign in us. Amen
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Put thou thy trust in God; In duty's path go on; Fix on His word thy steadfast eye; So shall thy work be done.
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There is no gown or garment that worse becomes a woman than when she will be wise.