66 Martin Luther Quotes

Martin Luther quotes

1. Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum.

2. By God's grace, I know Satan very well. If Satan can turn God's Word upside down and pervert the Scriptures, what will he do with my words -- or the words of others?

3. Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace.

4. If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign.

5. What does it mean to have a god? or, what is God? Answer: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.

6. 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.

7. When we are inclined to boast of our position [as Christians] we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are.

8. I cannot forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict Scripture.

9. But the Jews are so hardened that they listen to nothing; though overcome by testimonies they yield not an inch. It is a pernicious race, oppressing all men by their usury and rapine. If they give a prince or magistrate a thousand florins, they extort twenty thousand from the subjects in payment. We must ever keep on guard against them.

10. They are splendidly built ( Italian Hospitals ), the best food and drink are at hand, the attendants are very diligent, the physicians are learned, the beds and coverings are very clean, and the bedsteads are painted. As soon as a sick man is brought in, all his clothes are taken off in the presence of a notary and are faithfully kept for him. He is then laid in a handsomely painted bed with clean sheets. Two physicians are fetched at once. Attendants come with food and drink, served in immaculate glass vessels; these are not touched with as much as a finger but are brought on a tray.

11. I think these things ( firearms ) were invented by Satan himself, for they can't be defended against with (ordinary) weapons and fists. All human strength vanishes when confronted with firearms. A man is dead before he sees what's coming.

12. For the history of the centuries that have passed since the birth of Christ nowhere reveals conditions like those of the present. There has never been such building and planting in the world. There has never been such gluttonous and varied eating and drinking as now. Wearing apparel has reached its limit in costliness. Who has ever heard of such commerce as now encircles the earth? There have arisen all kinds of art and sculpture, embroidery and engraving, the like of which has not been seen during the whole Christian era. In addition men are so delving into the mysteries of things that today a boy of twenty knows more than twenty doctors formerly knew.

13. ...women and girls begin to bare themselves behind and in front, and there is nobody to punish and hold in check, and besides, God's word is mocked.

14. Few are the women and maidens who would let themselves think that one could at the same time be joyous and modest. They are all bold and coarse in their speech, in their demeanor wild and lewd. That is now the fashion of being in good cheer. But it is specially evil that the young maiden folk are exceedingly bold of speech and bearing, and curse like troopers, to say nothing of their shameful words and scandalous coarse sayings, which one always hears and learns from another.

15. 'For He that is mighty hath done great things for me, and Holy is His Name' (Luke 1:49). Luther comments:

16. The 'great things' are nothing less than that she became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed upon her as pass man's understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among whom she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in Heaven, and such a child. She herself is unable to find a name for this work, it is too exceedingly great; all she can do is break out in the fervent cry: 'They are great things,' impossible to describe or define. Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God. No one can say anything greater of her or to her, though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees, or grass in the fields, or stars in the sky, or sand by the sea. It needs to be pondered in the heart, what it means to be the Mother of God.

17. On coming to the house, they (the Magi), saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. (Matthew 2:11)

18. [This] adoration, too, was not the same as the worship of God. In my opinion they did not yet recognize him as God, but they acted in keeping with the custom mentioned in Scripture, according to which Kings and important people were worshiped; this did not mean more than falling down before them at their feet and honoring them.

19. Religion is not 'doctrinal knowledge,' but wisdom born of personal experience.

20. Holy Christendom has, in my judgment, no better teacher after the apostles than St. Augustine.

21. And I myself, in Rome, heard it said openly in the streets, 'If there is a hell, then Rome is built on it.' That is, 'After the devil himself, there is no worse folk than the pope and his followers.'

22. Luther's Works, Church and Ministry III, American Ed., Helmut T. Lehman, Eric W. Gritsch, eds., Augsburg Fortress Press, 1966, Vol. 41:279. ISBN 0800603419 ISBN 9780800603410.

23. A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Our helper He amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing.

24. Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.

25. Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen!

26. Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a-begging.

27. For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel...Thus is the Devil ever God's ape.

28. A faithful and good servant is a real godsend; but truly 't is a rare bird in the land.

29. The Mass is the greatest blasphemy of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an abomination the like of which has never been in Christendom since the time of the Apostles.

30. There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.

31. A theologian is born by living, nay dying and being damned, not by thinking, reading, or speculating.

32. Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but--more frequently than not --struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.

33. If it were art to overcome heresy with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth.

34. Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen.

35. The mad mob does not ask how it could be better, only that it be different. And when it then becomes worse, it must change again. Thus they get bees for flies, and at last hornets for bees.

36. Ein' feste burg is unser Gott, ein gute wehr und waffen. Er hilft uns frei aus aller not, die uns itzt hat betroffen.

37. What can only be taught by the rod and with blows will not lead to much good; they will not remain pious any longer than the rod is behind them.

38. Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.

39. Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

40. Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these infirmities, as though they proceeded from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads.

41. If [women] become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth--that is why they are there.

42. Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God.

43. Sin cannot tear you away from him [Christ], even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders.

44. We are all ministers of the Gospel. Some of us just happen to be clergymen.

45. Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason.

46. Nothing good ever comes of violence

1. The Holy Scriptures surpass in efficaciousness all the arts and all the sciences of the philosophers and jurists; these, though good and necessary to life here below, are vain and of no effect as to what concerns the life eternal.

2. In a delightful garden, sowing, planting or digging are not hardship but are done with a zeal and a certain pleasure.

3. If you could understand a single grain of wheat you would die of wonder.

4. He who believes in God is not careful for the morrow, but labors joyfully and with a great heart. "For He giveth His beloved, as in sleep." They must work and watch, yet never be careful or anxious, but commit all to Him, and live in serene tranquility; with a quiet heart, as one who sleeps safely and quietly.

5. God wants us to pray, and he wants to hear our prayers-not because we are worthy, but because he is merciful.

6. Our office...subjects us to great burdens and labors, dangers and temptations, with little reward or gratitude from the world. But Christ himself will be our reward if we labor faithfully.

7. The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.

8. Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?

9. Antichrist is the pope and the Turk [Muslim] together. A beast full of life must have a body and soul. The spirit or soul of Antichrist is the pope, his flesh or body the Turk.

10. It is not the imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators.

11. I did nothing. The Word did it all.

12. The only saving faith is that which casts itself on God for life or death.

13. I can't keep the sparrows from flying around my head, but I can keep them from making a nest in my hair.

14. Christ desires nothing more of us than that we speak of him.

15. Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.

16. Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him. In Hebrew, "Be silent in God, and let Him mould thee." Keep still, and He will mould thee to the right shape.

17. Christ and his word can hardly be recognized because of the great vermin of human ordinances. However, let this suffice for the time being on their lies against doctrine or faith.

18. It is not imitation that makes sons. It is sonship that make imitators.

19. Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometime hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. With this powerful gospel we shall boldly challenge the status quo.

20. Twas a special gift of God that speech was given to mankind; for through the Word, and not by force, wisdom governs.