Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

278 Sourced Quotes

The sword wherewith they judge their brethren will fall upon their own heads. Instead of cutting themselves off from the brother as the just from the unjust, they find themselves cut off from Jesus.

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
As Christ bore and received us as sinners so we in his fellowship may bear and receive sinners into the fellowship of Christ through the forgiving of sins.

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
The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In Jesus, the service of God and the service of the least of the brethren were one.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.

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

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

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

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
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
The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The more isolated a person is, the more destructive the power of sin over him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With its recovery will come unexpected power.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We are so afraid of silence that we chase ourselves from one event to the next in order not to have to spend a moment alone with ourselves, in order not to have to look at ourselves in the mirror.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Incarnation is the ultimate reason why the service of God cannot be divorced from the service of man.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The life of discipleship is not the hero-worship we would pay to a good master, but obedience to the Son of God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
My past life is abundantly full of God's mercy, and, above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A day without morning and evening prayers and personal intercessions is actually a day without meaning or importance.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own, the more simple and rich will our prayer become.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Certainly one must try everything, but only to become more certain what God's way is.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is a dangerous error, surely very widespread among Christians, to think that the heart can pray by itself.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
But they all stood beneath the cross, enemies and believers, doubters and cowards, revilers and devoted followers. His prayer, in that hour, and his forgiveness, was meant for them all, and for all their sins. The mercy and love of God are at work even in the midst of his enemies. It is the same Jesus Christ, who of his grace calls us to follow him, and whose grace saves the murderer who mocks him on the cross in his last hour.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer