Martin Luther Quotes

359 Sourced Quotes

I am persuaded that without knowledge of literature pure theology cannot at all endure.... When letters have declined and lain prostrate, theology, too, has wretchedly fallen and lain prostrate.... It is my desire that there shall be as many poets and rhetoricians as possible, because I see that by these studies as by no other means, people are wonderfully fitted for the grasping of sacred truth and for handling it skillfully and happily.

Martin Luther
'Tis wonderful how God has put such excellent physic in mere muck; we know by experience that swine's dung stints the blood; horse's serves for the pleurisy; man's heals wounds and black blotches; asses' is used for the bloody flux, and cow's, with preserved roses, serves for epilepsy, or for convulsions of children.

Martin Luther
I have undertaken to translate the Bible into German. This was good for me; otherwise I might have died in the mistaken notion that I was a learned fellow.

Martin Luther
I would not have preachers torment their hearers, and detain them with long and tedious preaching.

Martin Luther
The inner man cannot be forced to do out of his own free will, what he should do, except the grace of God change the heart and make it willing.

Martin Luther
No man understands the Scriptures, unless he be acquainted with the Cross.

Martin Luther
Wealth is the smallest thing on earth, the least gift that God has bestowed on mankind.

Martin Luther
Our Lord God doesn't do great things except by violence, as they say

Martin Luther
God foreknows nothing by contingency, but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will. By this thunderbolt, "Free-will" is thrown prostrate, and utterly dashed to pieces.

Martin Luther
Peter erred in life and in doctrine. Paul might have dismissed Peter's error as a matter of no consequence. But Paul saw that Peter's error would lead to the damage of the whole Church unless it were corrected. Therefore he withstood Peter to his face. The Church, Peter, the apostles, angels from heaven, are not to be heard unless they teach the genuine Word of God.

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

Martin Luther
Let us not lose the Bible, but with diligence, in fear and invocation of God, read and preach it. While that remains and flourishes, all prospers with the state; 'tis head and empress of all arts and faculties. Let but divinity fall, and I would not give a straw for the rest.

Martin Luther
Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?

Martin Luther
My counsel is, that we draw water from the true source and fountain, that is, that we diligently search the Scriptures. He who wholly possesses the text of the Bible, is a consummate divine.

Martin Luther
Our suffering is not worthy the name of suffering. When I consider my crosses, tribulations, and temptations, I shame myself almost to death, thinking what are they in
comparison of the sufferings of my blessed Savior Christ Jesus.

Martin Luther
I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Martin Luther
When God wants to speak and deal with us, he does not avail himself of an angel but of parents, or the pastor, or of our neighbor.

Martin Luther
Is it not a thing most abominable, that God who feeds so many mouths, should be held in such low esteem by me, that I will not trust him to feed me? Yea, that a guilder, thirty-eight cents, should be valued more highly than God, who pours out his treasures everywhere in rich profusion. For the world is full of God and his works. He is everywhere present with his gifts, and yet we will not trust in him, nor accept his visitation.

Martin Luther
If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing their lies- that is, longer than two thousand years.

Martin Luther
In a word, the Holy Scripture is the highest and best of books, abounding in comfort under all afflictions and trials. It teaches us to see, to feel, to grasp, and to comprehend faith, hope, and charity, far otherwise than mere human reason can; and while evil oppresses us, it teaches how these virtues throw light upon the darkness, and how, after this poor, miserable existence of ours on earth, there is another and an eternal life.

Martin Luther
The heavenly blessing is to be delivered from the law, sin and death; to be justified and quickened to life: to have peace with God; to have a faithful heart, a joyful conscience, a spiritual consolation; to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ; to have the gift of prophecy, and the revelation of the Scriptures; to have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to rejoice in God.

Martin Luther
In human affairs, we accomplish everything through prayer. What has been properly arranged, we keep in order, what has gone amiss we improve or change, what we cannot change and improve we bear, overcoming all trouble and sustaining all by prayer. Against such forces there is no help but prayer.

Martin Luther
When I was a child there were many witches, and they bewitched both cattle and men, especially children.

Martin Luther
In many countries there are particular places to which devils more especially resort. In Prussia there is an infinite number of evil spirits.

Martin Luther
The Holy Ghost has called me by the gospel and illuminated me with his gifts and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith.

Martin Luther
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.

Martin Luther
The more a person loves, the closer he approaches the image of God.

Martin Luther
Every doer of the law and every moral worker is accursed, for he walketh in the presumption of his own righteousness.

Martin Luther
We must not regard what or how the world esteems us, so we have the Word pure, and are certain of our doctrine.

Martin Luther
Although the Christian is thus free from all works, he ought in this liberty to empty himself, take upon himself the form of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, be found in human form, and to serve, help and in every way deal with his neighbor as he sees that God through Christ has dealt and still deals with him.

Martin Luther