Martin Luther Quotes

from you, my dear Erasmus, let me obtain this request, that just as I bear with your ignorance in these matters, so you in turn will bear with my lack of eloquence.

Heaven and earth, all the emperors, kings, and princes of the world, could not raise a fit dwelling-place for God; yet, in a weak human soul, that keeps His Word, He willingly resides.

Our office...subjects us to great burdens and labors, dangers and temptations, with little reward or gratitude from the world. But Christ himself will be our reward if we labor faithfully.

We should throw the Epistle of James out of this school.

The state of matrimony is the chief in the world after religion; but people shun it because of its inconveniences, like one who, running out of the rain, falls into the river.

The conscience is eternal and never dies. Peace if possible, but truth at any rate.

The law of God cannot be fulfilled by external obedience.

How can a reason which hates God be called sound?

All creatures are merely veils under which God hides Himself and deals with us.

[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.

God himself will milk the cows through him whose vocation that is.

Our bodies are always exposed to Satan. The maladies I suffer are not natural, but Devil's spells.

I see a word that hates evil more than it loves good.

It cannot, indeed, be denied, that a good man is more worthy of love than a bad one.

Nothing on earth is so well-suited to make the sad merry, the merry sad, to give courage to the despairing, to make the proud humble, to lessen envy and hate, as music.

Whoso hearkens not to God's voice, is an idolator, though he perform the highest and most heavy service of God.

Someone asked Luther, "Do you feel that you've been forgiven?" He answered, "No, but I'm as sure As there's a God in Heaven!"

Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools.

Faith does not inquire whether there are good works to be done, but even before asking questions, faith has done the works already.

The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His Kingdom is forever.

If the heart has been reformed by the spirit, it makes use of both the useful and delightful things created and given by God in a holy manner and with thanksgiving.

It is not the imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators.

In the Church, great wonders daily occur, such as the forgiveness of sins, triumph over death . . . the gift of righteousness and eternal life.

The true despisers of the world are the people who accept what God sends them, gratefully use all things when they have them, and gladly do without them if God takes them away

Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy.

Either God must be unjust, or you, Jews, wicked and ungodly. You have been, about fifteen hundred years, a race rejected of God.

The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.

He who hears this name [God] from a Jew must inform the authorities, or else throw sow dung at him when he sees him and chase him away.

The hair is the finest ornament women have. Of old, virgins used to wear it loose, except when they were in mourning.

Whoever wishes to be a Christian, let him pluck out the eyes of his reason.

Great thieves go Scott-free, as the Pope and his crew.

If it were art to overcome heresy with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth.

The fool will upset the whole science of astronomy, but as the Holy Scripture shows, it was the sun and not the earth which Joshua ordered to stand still.

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.

Two devils rose from the water, and flew off through the air, crying, 'Oh, oh, oh!' and turning one over another, in sportive mockery.

What would it matter if, for the sake of the Christian Church, one were to tell a big lie?

Count it one of the highest virtues upon earth to educate faithfully the children of others, which so few, and scarcely any, do by their own.

Snakes and monkeys are subjected to the demon more than other animals. Satan lives in them and possesses them. He uses them to deceive men and to injure them.

I have so much to do today that I must set apart more time than usual to pray.

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.

Some will object that the Law is divine and holy. Let it be divine and holy. The Law has no right to tell me that I must be justified by it.

There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason...Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.

What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good.

It is impossible for one man both to labor day and night to get a living, and at the same time give himself to the study of sacred learning as the preaching office requires.

If God is to create or to preserve a creature, God must be present and must make and preserve God's creation both in its innermost and outermost aspects.

Angels are our true and trusty servants, performing offices and works that one poor miserable mendicant would be ashamed to do for another.

Men are so delving into the mysteries of things that today a boy of twenty knows more than twenty doctors formerly knew.

The fool will upset the whole science of astronomy.

Adam was created, as it were, intoxicated with rejoicing toward God and was delighted also with all the other creatures.

To comfort a sorrowful conscience is much better than to possess many kngdoms; yet the world regards it not; nay, condemns it, calling us rebels, dissturbers of the peace.