Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

278 Sourced Quotes

Right speech comes out of silence and right silence comes out of speech.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy...He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The consciousness of being borne up by a spiritual tradition that goes back for centuries gives one a feeling of confidence and security in the face of all passing strains and stresses.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Who am I? this or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army fleeing
in disorder from a victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What is happiness and unhappiness? It depends so little on the circumstances; it depends really only on what happens inside a person. I am grateful for every day and that makes me happy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Why do Christians sing when they are together? The reason is, quite simply, because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time; in other words, because here they can unite in the Word.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Where a people prays, there is the church; and where the church is; there is never loneliness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian. If any member refuses to bear that burden, he denies the law of Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self- satisfied; in fact, he can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make him aggressive. A fool must therefore be treated more cautiously than a scoundrel.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is infinitely easier to suffer in obedience to a human command than to accept suffering as free, responsible men.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus says that every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share: some God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering, and gives them the grace of martyrdom, while others he does not allow to be tempted above that which they are able to bear. But it is the one and the same cross in every case.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Lord stands above the new day, for God has made it. All restlessness, all worry, and anxiety flee before him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses... only through discipline may a man learn to be free.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Thus the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins. Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian's duty to bear.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When a man really gives up trying to make something out of himself - a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a so-called clerical somebody), a righteous or unrighteous man,...and throws himself into the arms of God...then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, that is metanoia and it is thus that he becomes a man and Christian.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Psalter is the prayer book of Jesus Christ in the truest sense of the word. He prayed the Psalter and now it has become his prayer for all time...we understand how the Psalter can be prayer to God and yet God's own Word, precisely because here we encounter the praying Christ...because those who pray the psalms are joining in with the prayer of Jesus Christ, their prayer reaches the ears of God. Christ has become their intercessor...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Where is love more glorified than where she dwells in the midst of her enemies?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love. God makes us happy, as only children can be happy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There are not two realities, but only one reality, and that is the reality of God, which has become manifest in the Christ event/redemption and creation.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
May God in His mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may He lead us to Himself.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is a blessed thing to know that no power on earth, no temptation, no human frailty can dissolve what God holds together.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could he help us? If he is not true man, how could he help us?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Any honours that come our way are only stolen from him to whom alone they really belong, the Lord who sent us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve — even in pain — the authentic relationship.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The gift of Christ is not the Christian religion, but the grace and love of God which culminate in the cross.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When the spirit touches
man's heart and brow
with thoughts that are lofty, bold, serene,
so that with clear eyes he will face the world
as a free man may;
when the spirit gives birth to action
by which alone we stand or fall;
when from the sane and resolute action
rises the workd that gives a a man's life
content and meaning — then would that many,
lonely and actively working,
know of the spirit that grasps and befriends him...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer