Martin Luther Quotes

361 Sourced Quotes

A Christian is free and independent in every respect, a bond servant to none. A Christian is a dutiful servant in every respect, owing a duty to everyone.

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

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

Martin Luther
This is the most dangerous trial of all, when there is no trial and every thing goes well; for then a man is tempted to forget God, to become too bold and to misuse times of prosperity.

Martin Luther
A penny saved is of more value than a penny paid out.

Martin Luther
God wants to be praised for nourishing and cherishing, for God cherishes all creatures. God is not only the creator, but is also the sustainer and nourisher.

Martin Luther
All we who believe on Christ are kings and priests in Christ.

Martin Luther
When speaking of the spiritual nature or the soul, we are referring to that which is inner or new. When speaking of the bodily nature, or that which is flesh and blood, we are referring to that which is called sensual, outward, or old. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16: Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

Martin Luther
May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sins.

Martin Luther
What is sought by means of free choice is to make room for merits.

Martin Luther
Oh! how great and glorious a thing it is to have before one the Word of God! With that we may at all times feel joyous and secure; we need never be in want of consolation, for we see before us, in all its brightness, the pure and right way.

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
[Our] plan is to follow the example of the prophets and the ancient fathers of the church, and to compose psalms...so that the Word of God may be among the people also in the form of music.

Martin Luther
Isaiah calls the Church barren because her children are born without effort by the Word of faith through the Spirit of God. It is a matter of birth, not of exertion.

Martin Luther
It is an unsufferable blasphemy to reject the public ministry or to say that people can become holy without sermons and Church. This involves a destruction of the Church and rebellion against ecclesiastical order; such upheavals must be warded off and punished like all other revolts.

Martin Luther
A man must be able to affirm, I know for certain, that what I teach is the only Word of the high Majesty of God in heaven, his final conclusion and everlasting, unchangeable truth, and whatsoever concurs and agrees not with this doctrine, is altogether false, and spun by the devil.

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

Martin Luther
When Jesus Christ utters a word, He opens His mouth so wide that it embraces all Heaven and earth, even though that word be but in a whisper.

Martin Luther
For God does not want to save us by our own but by an extraneous righteousness, one that does not originate in ourselves but comes to us from beyond ourselves, which does not arise on earth but comes from heaven.

Martin Luther
For they who think they make an end of temptation by yeilding to it, only set themselves on fire the more.

Martin Luther
The Apostle Paul wants us to work with our hands in order to share with the needy (Ephesians 5:28). Notice that he could have said that we should work to support ourselves. But Paul says that we work to give to those in need. This is why caring for our body is also a Christian work. If the body is healthy and fit, we are able to work and save money that can be used to help those in need.

Martin Luther
If I had heard that as many devils would set on me in Worms as there are tiles on the roofs, I should nonetheless have ridden there.

Martin Luther
Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by love, when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest servitude in which he serves others voluntarily and for nought, himself abundantly satisfied in the fulness and riches of his own faith.

Martin Luther
Can he who understands not God's word, understand God's works?

Martin Luther
We are not to look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ was given, not for picayune and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all; not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained.

Martin Luther