Faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.
Dietrich BonhoefferDiscipleship never consists in this or that specific action: it is always a decision, either for or against Jesus Christ.
Dietrich BonhoefferStill more pathetic is the total collapse of moral fanaticism. Fanatics think that their single-minded principles qualify them to do battle with the powers of evil; but like a bull they rush at the red cloak instead of the person who is holding it; he exhausts himself and is beaten. He gets entangled in non-essentials and falls into the trap set by cleverer people.
Dietrich BonhoefferWho can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?
Dietrich BonhoefferWe are separated from one another by an unbridgeable gulf of otherness and strangeness which resists all our attempts to overcome it by means of natural association or emotional or spiritual union. There is no way from one person to another. However loving and sympathetic we try to be, however sound our psychology however frank and open our behaviour we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other man, for there are no direct relationships, not even between soul and soul. Christ stands between us, and we can only get into touch with our neighbors through Him.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer