Martin Luther Quotes
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What will you do in the mundane days of faithfulness?
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Drive them Jews like mad dogs from our land... let not one of them live.
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A theologian should be thoroughly in possession of the basis and source of faith--that is to say, the Holy Scriptures. Armed with this knowledge it was that I confounded and silenced all my adversaries; for they seek not to fathom and understand the Scriptures; they run them over negligently and drowsily; they speak, they write, they teach, according to the suggestion of their heedless imaginations.
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Holy Christendom has, in my judgment, no better teacher after the apostles than St. Augustine.
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Religion is not 'doctrinal knowledge,' but wisdom born of personal experience.
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Our preaching does not stop with the law. That would lead to wounding without binding up, striking down and not healing, killing and not making alive, driving down to hell and not bringing back up, humbling and not exalting. Therefore, we must also preach grace and the promise of forgiveness - this is the means by which faith is awakened and properly taught. Without this word of grace, the law, contrition, penitence, and everything else are done and taught in vain.
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Sleep is a most useful and most salutary operation of nature. Scarcely any minor annoyance angers me more than the being suddenly awakened out of a pleasant slumber. I understand that in Italy they torture poor people by depriving them of sleep. `Tis a torture that cannot long be endured.
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Nothing good ever comes of violence.
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Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
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We must make a great difference between God's Word and the word of man. A man's word is a little sound, that flies into the air, and soon vanishes; but the Word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yea, greater than death and hell, for it forms part of the power of God, and endures everlastingly.
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Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.
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Then they began to say: 'Yes, but how can we know what is God's Word, and what is right or wrong? We must learn this from the Pope and the councils.' Very well then, let them conclude and say what they please, yet I will reply, you cannot put your confidence in that nor thus satisfy your conscience, for you must determine this matter yourself, for your very life depends upon it. Therefore God must speak to your heart: This is God's Word; otherwise you are undecided.
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Spare the rod and spoil the child - that is true. But, beside the rod, keep an apple to give him when he has done well.
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Riches, understanding, beauty, are fair gifts of God.
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As long as a man is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God. Such a man plans out for himself a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation, but which will not.
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This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.
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'For He that is mighty hath done great things for me, and Holy is His Name' (Luke 1:49). Luther comments:
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The God of this world is riches, pleasure and pride.
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To pray diligently is more than half the task.
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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.
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God delights in our temptations and yet hates them. He delights in them when they drive us to prayer; he hates them when they drive us to despair.
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If it were art to overcome heresy with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth.
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The fewer the words, the better the prayer.
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This letter to the Romans is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.