Martin Luther Quotes

A large number of deaf, crippled and blind people are afflicted solely through the malice of the demon. And one must in no wise doubt that plagues, fevers and every sort of evil come from him.

Whenever the true message of the cross is abolished, the anger of hypocrites and heretics ceases.. and all things are in peace. This is a sure token that the devil is guarding the entry to the house, and that the PURE doctrine of God's Word has been taken away. The Church then, is in the BEST state when Satan assaileth it on every sideboth with subtle sleights, and outright violence. And likewise, it is in the WORST state when it is most at peace!

Those speak foolishly who ascribe their anger or their impatience to such as offend them or to tribulation. Tribulation does not make people impatient, but proves that they are impatient. So everyone may learn from tribulation how his heart is constituted.

He that has but one word of God before him, and out of that word cannot make a sermon, can never be a preacher.

A unjust law, is no law at all.

I did nothing. The Word did it all.

The devil is God's ape!

Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other

It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of the ale-house in church.

Does it follow from: 'turn ye' that therefore you can turn? Does it follow from "'Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart' (Deut 6.5) that therefore you can love with all your heart? What do arguments of this kind prove, but the 'free-will' does not need the grace of God, but can do all things by its own power....But it does not follow from this that man is converted by his own power, nor do the words say so; they simply say: "if thou wilt turn,telling man what he should do. When he knows it, and sees that he cannot do it, he will ask whence he may find ability to do it..." 164

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.

Then they began to say: 'Yes, but how can we know what is God's Word, and what is right or wrong? We must learn this from the Pope and the councils.' Very well then, let them conclude and say what they please, yet I will reply, you cannot put your confidence in that nor thus satisfy your conscience, for you must determine this matter yourself, for your very life depends upon it. Therefore God must speak to your heart: This is God's Word; otherwise you are undecided.

Christ will remain a priest and king; though He was never consecrated by any papist bishop or greased by any of those shavelings; but he was ordained and consecrated by God Himself, and by Him anointed.

I have before me God's Word which cannot fail, nor can the gates of hell prevail against it; thereby will I remain, though the whole world be against me.

Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.

It is a tremendously hard thing to pray aright, yea, it is verily the science of all sciences.

The Bible is the book that makes fools of the wise of this world; it is only understood by the plain and simple hearted.

A woman has no control over herself.

Medicine makes people ill, mathematics make them sad and theology makes them sinful.

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

I am so busy now that if I did not spend three hours each day in prayer, I could not get through the day.

Christ is the master; the Scriptures are only the servant.

We come to the New Testament, where again a host of imperative verbs is mustered in support of that miserable bondage of free-choice, and the aid of carnal Reason with her inferences and similes is called in, just as in a picture or a dream you might see the King of the flies with his lances of straw and shields of hay arrayed against a real and regular army of seasoned human troops. That is how the human dreams of Diatribe go to war with the battalions of divine words.

I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people joyful; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor.

You have as much laughter as you have faith.

O, this faith is a living, busy, active, powerful thing! It is impossible that it should not be ceaselessly doing that which is good. It does not even ask whether good works should be done; but before the question can be asked, it has done them, and it is constantly engaged in doing them. But he who does not do such works, is a man without faith. He gropes and casts about him to find faith and good works, not knowing what either of them is, and yet prattles and idly multiplies words about faith and good works.

Grace was not given to heal the spiritually sick but to decorate spiritual heroes!

As for the demented, I hold it certain that all beings deprived of reason are thus afflicted only by the Devil.

In human affairs we accomplish everything through prayer. What has been properly arranged we keep in order, what has gone amiss we change and improve, what cannot be changed and improved we bear, overcoming all the trouble and sustaining all the good by prayer. Against force there is no help but prayer alone.

If the peasants are in open rebellion, then they are outside the law of God. Therefore let all who are able slash, strike down, and kill (those who rebel) openly and secretly, remembering that there can be nothing more venomous, harmful, or devilish than a rebel. It is exactly like killing a mad dog.

This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.

The gospel cannot be preached and heard enough, for it cannot be grasped well enough.

Whatever you love most, that is your 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!"

What shall we Christians do now with this depraved and damned people of the Jews? ... I will give my faithful advice: First, that one should set fire to their synagogues. . . . Then that one should also break down and destroy their houses. . . . That one should drive them out the country.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say

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

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

The devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God.

It's not what I don't know that bothers me - it's what I do know and don't do!

When God contemplates some great work, He begins it by the hand of some poor, weak, human creature, to whom He afterwards gives aid.

The slender capacity of man's heart cannot comprehend the unfathomable depth and burning zeal of God's love toward us.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.

We know, on the authority of Moses, that longer than six thousand years the world did not exist.

One Book is enough, but a thousand books is not too many!

I do not deny that medicine is a gift of God, nor do I refuse to acknowledge science in the skill of many physicians; but, take the best of them, how far are they from perfection? A sound regimen produces excellent effects. When I feel indisposed, by observing a strict diet and going to bed early, I generally manage to get round again, that is, if I can keep my mind tolerably at rest. I have no objection to the doctors acting upon certain theories, but, at the same time, they must not expect us to be the slaves of their fancies.

Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.