Top 100 Martin Luther Quotes
#1. The Holy Spirit has a way of His own to say much in few words.
Martin Luther
#2. Hence the best service that anybody can render God is diligently to hear and read God's Word.
Martin Luther
#4. 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.
Martin Luther
#5. 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.
Martin Luther
#6. The Devil ... clutched hold of the miserable young man ... and flew off with him through the ceiling, since which time nothing has been heard of him.
Martin Luther
#7. PRAYER O God, our merciful Father in heaven, fill our hearts with patience under the cross, strengthen our faith, and so govern us that we give offense to none, neither in word nor deed. Grant us also this day all that we need for body and soul. Amen.
Martin Luther
#8. 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 ...
Martin Luther
#9. So it is with human reason, which strives not against faith, when enlightened, but rather furthers and advances it.
Martin Luther
#10. I have lived to see the greatest plague on earth
the condemning of God's word, a fearful thing, surpassing all other plagues in the world; for thereupon most surely follow all manner of punishments, eternal and corporal.
Martin Luther
#11. The gospel cannot be preached and heard enough, for it cannot be grasped well enough ... Moreover, our greatest task is to keep you faithful to this article and to bequeath this treasure to you when we die.
Martin Luther
#12. So, too, faith comes only through the word of God, the Gospel, that preaches Christ: how he is both Son of God and man, how he died and rose for our sake. Paul says all this in chapters
Martin Luther
#13. Whatever man loves, that is his god. For he carries it in his heart; he goes about with it night and day; he sleeps and wakes with it, be it what it may - wealth or self, pleasure or renown.
Martin Luther
#14. What do we older folks live for if not for the care of the young, to teach and train them?
Martin Luther
#15. 115. Learn, then, what a hypocrite is; namely, one who lays claim to the worship of God and to charity, and yet, at the same time, destroys the worship of God and slaughters his brother.
Martin Luther
#16. Thus my learning is not my own; it belongs to the unlearned and is the debt I owe themMy wisdom belongs to the foolish, my power to the oppressed. Thus my wealth belongs to the poor, my righteousness to the sinners.
Martin Luther
#17. Religion is not 'doctrinal knowledge,' but wisdom born of personal experience.
Martin Luther
#18. Every occupation has its own honor before God. Ordinary work is a divine vocation or calling. In our daily work no matter how important or mundane we serve God by serving the neighbor and we also participate in God's on-going providence for the human race.
Martin Luther
#19. For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
Martin Luther
#20. A large number of deaf, crippled and blind people are afflicted solely through the malice of the demon. And one must in no wise doubt that plagues, fevers and every sort of evil come from him.
Martin Luther
#21. [The Psalms are] a Little Bible, wherein everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended.
Martin Luther
#23. The priest is not made. He must be born a priest; must inherit his office. I refer to the new birth-the birth of water and the Spirit. Thus all Christians must became priests, children of God and co-heirs with Christ the Most High Priest.
Martin Luther
#24. Thus the sum and substance of all doctrine is this, that we are not justified by any works, but that faith in Christ saves.
Martin Luther
#25. God is not a God of sadness, death, etc., but the devil is. Christ is a God of joy, and so the Scriptures often say that we should rejoice ... A Christian should and must be a cheerful person.
Martin Luther
#26. Undoubtedly they do more and viler things than those which we know and discover
Martin Luther
#27. To be a Christian, you must pluck out the eye of reason.
Martin Luther
#28. Whoso hearkens not to God's voice, is an idolator, though he perform the highest and most heavy service of God.
Martin Luther
#29. In my heart reigns this one article, faith in my dear Lord Christ, the beginning, middle and end of whatever spiritual and divine thoughts I may have, whether by day or by night.
Martin Luther
#30. We despise the grace of God when we observe the Law for the purpose of being justified. The Law is good, holy, and profitable, but it does not justify. To keep the Law in order to be justified means to reject grace, to deny Christ, to despise His sacrifice, and to be lost.
Martin Luther
#31. You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.
Martin Luther
#32. Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should wish to give of his own money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St. Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences cajole money.
Martin Luther
#33. God's entire divine nature is wholly and entirely in all creatures, more deeply, more inwardly, more present than the creature is to itself.
Martin Luther
#34. I felt that I had been born anew and that the gates of heaven had been opened. The whole of Scripture gained a new meaning. And from that point on the phrase, 'the justice of God' no longer filled me with hatred, but rather became unspeakable sweet by virtue of a great love.
Martin Luther
#35. I am not of the opinion that all the arts shall be crushed to earth and perish through the Gospel, as some bigoted persons pretend, but would willingly see them all, and especially music, servants of Him who gave and created them.
Martin Luther
#36. Great thieves go Scott-free, as the Pope and his crew.
Martin Luther
#37. A Christian is free and independent in every respect, a bond servant to none. A Christian is a dutiful servant in every respect, owing a duty to everyone.
Martin Luther
#38. Preach [and live] as if Jesus was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is returning tomorrow.
Martin Luther
#39. An earthly kingdom cannot exist without any quality of persons, some must be free, some serves, some rulers, some subjects.
Martin Luther
#40. With such and the like fopperies were petty brains troubled.
Martin Luther
#41. He who loses sight of the word of God, falls into despair; the voice of heaven no longer sustains him; he follows only the disorderly tendency of his heart.
Martin Luther
#42. Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!
Martin Luther
#43. If you young fellows were wise, the devil couldn't do anything to you, but since you aren't wise, you need us who are old.
Martin Luther
#44. One Book is enough, but a thousand books is not too many!
Martin Luther
#45. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished ...
Martin Luther
#47. Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.
Martin Luther
#48. The ultimate blessing that God can confer on a man is the possession of a good and pious wife.
Martin Luther
#50. Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times
Martin Luther
#52. It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of the ale-house in church.
Martin Luther
#53. Through faith we are restored to paradise and created anew. We have no need of works in order to be righteous; however, in order to avoid idleness and so that the body might be cared for an disciplined, works are done freely to please God.
Martin Luther
#54. No man should be alone when he opposes Satan. The Church and the ministry of the Word were instituted for this purpose, that hands may be joined together and one may help another.
Martin Luther
#55. A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.
Martin Luther
#56. For the statement of Isaiah (28:19) is true: "Trouble gives understanding"; likewise, hunger is the best condiment. For those who are afflicted have a better understanding of the Holy Scriptures; the smug and prosperous read them as if they were some poem written by Ovid.
Martin Luther
#57. One is not righteous who does much, but the one who, without work, believes much in Christ. The law says, 'Do this,' and it is never done. Grace says, 'Believe in this,' and everything is already done.
Martin Luther
#58. Many have been deceived by outward appearances and have proceeded to write and teach about good works and how they justify without even mentioning faith ... Wearying themselves with many works, they never come to righteousness.
Martin Luther
#59. 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.
Martin Luther
#60. When God contemplates some great work, He begins it by the hand of some poor, weak, human creature, to whom He afterwards gives aid.
Martin Luther
#61. If Church history teaches us anything, it is that we cannot afford to be a vacillating Church. We minister to a people who are in great need of hearing truth, we dare not make any attempt to soft pedal that glorious truth.
Martin Luther
#63. We may search long to find where God is, but we shall find Him in those who keep the words of Christ. For the Lord Christ saith, If any man love me, he will keep my words; and we will make our abode with him.
Martin Luther
#64. I should have no compassion on these witches; I should burn them all.
Martin Luther
#65. God is not hostile to sinners, but only to unbelievers.
Martin Luther
#66. The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.
Martin Luther
#67. Albert Durer, the famous painter, used to say he had no pleasure in pictures that were painted with many colors, but in those which were painted with a choice simplicity. So it is with me as to sermons.
Martin Luther
#69. You should be certain that angels are protecting you when you go to sleep. Yea, that they are protecting you also in all your business, whether you enter or leave your home.
Martin Luther
#70. There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.
Martin Luther
#71. Christ ought to be preached with this goal in mind
that we might be moved to faith in him so that he is not just a distant historical figure but actually Christ for you and me.
Martin Luther
#72. Original sin is in us like our beard. We are shaved today and look clean; tomorrow our beard has grown again, nor does it cease growing while we remain on earth. In like manner original sin cannot be extirpated from us; it springs up in us as long as we live.
Martin Luther
#73. God wants us to pray, and he wants to hear our prayers - not because we are worthy, but because he is merciful.
Martin Luther
#74. I've got so much work to do today, I'd better spend two hours in prayer instead of one.
Martin Luther
#75. There are only two days on my calendar, today and THAT DAY!
Martin Luther
#76. 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.
Martin Luther
#77. Pestis eram vivus ... moriens tua mors ero - Living, I was your plague ... dying, I shall be your death.
Martin Luther
#78. This new subterfuge is, of course, calculated to deceive the simple and innocent into thinking that the matter is settled.
Martin Luther
#80. Without images we can neither think nor understand anything.
Martin Luther
#81. What will you do in the mundane days of faithfulness?
Martin Luther
#82. Christ will remain a priest and king; though He was never consecrated by any papist bishop or greased by any of those shavelings; but he was ordained and consecrated by God Himself, and by Him anointed.
Martin Luther
#83. Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.
Martin Luther
#84. By faith we began, by hope we continue, and by revelation we shall obtain the whole.
Martin Luther
#85. If a man serves not God only, then surely he serves the devil.
Martin Luther
#86. Let us keep to Christ, and cling to Him, and hang on Him, so that no power can remove us.
Martin Luther
#87. Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the way of the Sacramentarians, nor sat in the seat of the Zwinglians, nor followed the Council of the Zurichers.
Martin Luther
#89. The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God. In this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.
Martin Luther
#91. He who believes God, recognizes Him as true and faithful, and himself as a liar; for he mistrusts his own thinking as false, and trusts the Word of God as being true, though it absolutely contradicts his own reasoning.
Martin Luther
#92. Faith is a free surrenderand a joyous wager on the unseen, unknown, untested goodness of God.
Martin Luther
#93. Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy.
Martin Luther
#94. To be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing.
Martin Luther
#95. The state of matrimony is the chief in the world after religion; but people shun it because of its inconveniences, like one who, running out of the rain, falls into the river.
Martin Luther
#96. You see, however, which is called the Court of Rome, and which neither you nor any man can deny to be more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom, and quite, as I believe, of a lost, desperate and hopeless impiety.
Martin Luther
#97. God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.
Martin Luther
#98. The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.
Martin Luther
#99. The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.
Martin Luther
#100. Paul makes it clear enough that it takes more than an Abrahamic pedigree to be a child of God. To be a child of God requires faith in Christ.
Martin Luther
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