Martin Luther Quotes
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In short, I will preach it the Word, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.
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In Switzerland, on a high mountain, not far from Lucerne, there is a lake they call Pilate's Pond, which the Devil has fixed upon as one of the chief residences of his evil spirits.
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Christ is the Master; the Scriptures are only the servant. The true way to test all the Books is to see whether they work the will of Christ or not. No Book which does not preach Christ can be apostolic, though Peter or Paul were its author. And no Book which does preach Christ can fail to be apostolic, although Judas, Ananias, Pilate, or Herod were its author.
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Lying and guile need only to be revealed and recognized to be undone. When once lying is recognized as such, it needs no second stroke; it falls of itself and vanishes in shame.
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The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.
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Mankind has a free will; but it is free to milk cows and to build houses, nothing more.
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The defects of a preacher are soon spied.
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Though we be active in the battle, if we are not fighting where the battle is the hottest, we are traitors to the cause.
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If men only believe enough in Christ they can commit adultery and murder a thousand times a day without periling their salvation.
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We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.
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The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.
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A great variety of reading confuses and does not teach. It makes the student like a man who dwells everywhere and, therefore, nowhere in particular.
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There are only two days on my calendar... today and the day of judgment.
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We need to hear the Gospel every day, because we forget it every day.
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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.
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To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
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God is ready to give more quickly, and to give more than you ask; yea, he offers his treasures if we only take them. It is truly a great shame and a severe chastisement for us Christians that God should still upbraid us for our slothfulness in prayer, and that we fail to let such a rich and excellent promise incite us to pray.
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Earth has nothing more tender than a woman's heart when it is the abode of piety.
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But since the devil's bride, Reason, that pretty whore, comes in and thinks she's wise, and what she says, what she thinks, is from the Holy Spirit, who can help us, then? Not judges, not doctors, no king or emperor, because reason is the Devil's greatest whore.
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Obedience is the crown and honour of all virtue.
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Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles... We are beggars: this is true.
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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.
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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.
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At Sussen, the Devil carried off, last Good Friday, three grooms who had devoted themselves to him.