Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

278 Sourced Quotes

Jesus is the only significance. Beside Jesus nothing has any significance. He alone matters.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If the heart is devoted to the mirage of the world, to the creature instead of the Creator, the disciple is lost... However urgently Jesus may call us, His call fails to find access to our hearts... for they have already been given to another.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they should lead them.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In recent years we have seen a great deal of bravery and self-sacrifice, but civil courage hardly anywhere, even among ourselves.

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

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

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

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

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

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Wherever it pleases God to put man in this world, the Christian must be ready for martyrdom and death. It is only in this way that man learns faith.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The time is short. Eternity is long. It is the time of decision.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
After death something new begins, over which all powers of the world of death have no more might.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The proclamation of grace has its limits. Grace may not be proclaimed to anyone who does not recognize or distinguish or desire it... The world upon whom grace is thrust as a bargain will grow tired of it, and it will not only trample upon the Holy, but also will tear apart those who force it on them.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.... There is a truth which is of Satan. Its essence is that under the semblance of truth it denies everything that is real. It lives upon hatred of the real world which is created and loved by God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A king who dies on the cross must be the king of a rather strange kingdom.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is, 'He leads the way, keep close to Him.'

Dietrich Bonhoeffer