Martin Luther Quotes

Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason-I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other-my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

Thus every matter, if it is to be done well, calls for the attention of the whole person.

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

Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad new year to all the earth.

Good works are the seals and proofs of faith; for even as a letter must have a seal to strengthen the same, even so faith must have good works.

To have peace and love in marriage is a gift which is next to the knowledge of the Gospel.

Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason.

A person whodoes not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.

He who is well acquainted with the text of scripture, is a distinguished theologian. For a Bible passage or text is of more value than the comments of four authors.

In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life. Here below all is incomprehensible.

That the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom - this is the reason for our rejoicing.

I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.

Christ is the Master; the Scriptures are only the servant. The true way to test all the Books is to see whether they work the will of Christ or not. No Book which does not preach Christ can be apostolic, though Peter or Paul were its author. And no Book which does preach Christ can fail to be apostolic, although Judas, Ananias, Pilate, or Herod were its author.

Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should wish to give of his own money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St. Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences cajole money.

Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!

Faith is the yes of the heart.

Against the flying ball no valor avails.

Reason should be destroyed in all Christians.

May the Lord fill you with His blessings and with hatred of the Pope.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last of the evening.

This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners; for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ's, and Christ's righteousness is not Christ's but ours.

The devil doesn't stay where there is music.

Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?

Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.

Our most merciful Father, seeing us to be oppressed and overwhelmed with the curse of the law . . . sent his only Son into the world and laid upon him all the sins of all men, saying, 'You be Peter that denier, Paul that persecutor, blasphemer and cruel oppressor, David that adulterer, that sinner who ate the apple in Paradise, that thief who hung upon the cross, and briefly, you be the person who has committed the sins of all men. See therefore that you pay and satisfy for them.'

I hate myself, that I cannot believe it so constantly and surely as I should; but no human creature can rightly know how mercifully God is inclined toward those that steadfastly believe in Christ.

I put the Scriptures above all the sayings of the fathers, angels, men and devils. Here I take my stand.

Thus my learning is not my own; it belongs to the unlearned and is the debt I owe themMy wisdom belongs to the foolish, my power to the oppressed. Thus my wealth belongs to the poor, my righteousness to the sinners.

Sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive.

It is pleasing to the dear God whenever thou rejoicest or laughest from the bottom of thy heart.

It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor.

We conclude, therefore, that a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.

Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.

Marriage is a civic matter. It is really not, together with all its circumstances, the business of the church.

The best way to get rid of the Devil, if you cannot kill it with the words of Holy Scripture, is to rail at and mock him. Music, too, is very good; music is hateful to him, and drives him far away.

The Holy Ghost is not a Sceptic, and He has not inscribed in our hearts uncertain opinions, but, rather, affirmations of the strongest sorts.

God is a blank sheet upon which nothing is found but what you yourself have written.

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.

If you could understand a single grain of wheat you would die of wonder.

But Satan, the god of all dissension, stirreth up daily new sects, and last of all (which of all other I should never have foreseen or once suspected) he hath raised up a sect of such as teach that the Ten Commandments ought to be taken out of the church, and that men should not be terrified with the law, but gently exerted by the preaching of the grace of Christ.

I must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and am glad so to remain.

A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it

God is entirely and personally present in the wilderness, in the garden, in the field.

Let all the 'free-will' in the world do all it can with all its strength; it will never give rise to a single instance of ability to avoid being hardened if God does not give the Spirit, or of meriting mercy if it is left to its own strength.

I cannot believe that my illness is natural. I suspect Satan, and therefore I am the more inclined to take it lightly.

In the treatment of poverty nationally, one fact stands out: there are twice as many white poor as Negro poor in the United States. Therefore I will not dwell on the experiences of poverty that derive from racial discrimination, but will discuss the poverty that affects white and Negro alike.

To preach Christ is to feed the soul, to justify it, to set it free, and to save it, if it believes the preaching.

Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise.