Quotes from Martin Luther

But if I endure in trouble, then Pharaoh and his troops are plunged into the deep, and the way out I have hoped for is opened to me.

For I shall never advise a heathen or a Turk, let alone a Christian, to attack another or begin war.

Those precious words, Holy and Spiritual, have been perverted for us through the greed of the preachers, in that they have denominated the state of priests and monks holy and spiritual, and have thus scandalously robbed us of these noble, precious words, as also of the word Church, since with them the Pope and Bishops are the Church, while they do according to their own pleasure whatever they choose, in virtue of the declaration

the Lord has freed us from great evils to which we have been subjected, and that we have accepted many good things by faith.

He who has once forsaken God finds it impossible to abide by one definite deity, that is, in one religion or definite worship of God, just as there is an infinite succession of sins through unbelief, or the loss of faith. It

We surely have no reason to be at odds with God. He gave us His holy Baptism, His Word, the Sacrament, the Office of the Keys, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Who then can say that we receive anything but sheer grace, love, and comfort from Him? If He promises us Christ's blood and death in Baptism and, by means of this, forgiveness of sin and absolution; if He closes hell and opens heaven for us, what animosity or displeasure toward us can there be in Him?

He does not say: "There dare not be an evil rumor," but rather: "There will be evil rumors. The world will revile him and hold him to be a wicked scoundrel, a heretic, and a deceiver.

Sin is an exacting despot who can be vanquished by no created power, but by the sovereign power of Jesus Christ alone.

This is the manner that God uses with all of us to strengthen and test our faith, in that He treats us in such a way that we do not know what He will do with us. He does this only so that we will commend ourselves to Him, yield ourselves only to His kindness, and not doubt that He will give us what we desire or something better.

inward holiness in the spirit before God. And this is the reason specially why he said this, in order to show that there is nothing holy but that holiness which God produces within us.

It never does any good when one knave punishes another without first becoming good himself.

Nothing is more familiar or characteristic among Christians than assertion. Take away assertions, and you take away Christianity.

he says "firm place" because spiritual goods do not persist in themselves but in God, from whom they gush forth without ceasing.

This is shown by the history of Saul. Although he had sinned against the voice of the Lord, this would have been forgiven him if he had not added a defense of his sin and said (1 Sam. 15:13), "I have performed the commandments of the Lord.

This is reported by Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book VI, pars. 28–30.

is not our business to terrify any godless person.

VIII. Beyond all this is the highest stage of faith, when; God punishes the conscience not only with temporal sufferings, but with death, hell, and sin, and refuses grace and mercy, as though it were His will to condemn and to be angry eternally. This few men experience, but David cries out in Psalm vi, "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger." To believe at such times that God, in His mercy, is pleased with us, is the highest work that can be done by and in the creature;

A man is called 'spiritually poor,' not because he has no money or anything of his own, but because he does not covet it or set his comfort and trust upon it as though it were his kingdom of heaven.

Church and State are both rent, by the tugging of the demonic and the Divine

No flesh, not even that of the true believer, is so completely under the influence of the Spirit that it will not bite or devour, or at least neglect, the commandment of love.

He is wonderful in His Holy One because He brings Him into tribulation and thus crowns Him.

Let us seek the sprinkling of the Spirit and the inward washing which Peter (1 Peter 1:2) calls "sprinkling with Christ's blood," by which all of us who hear and believe the Gospel of Christ are cleansed.

According to John 6:15, He [Christ] fled and would not let Himself be made king; before Pilate He confessed, "My kingdom is not of this world"; and He bade Peter, in the garden, put up his sword, and said, "He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.

Thus the fleshly use of sex is forbidden, because it is a disorderly lust. Where, however, sex is associated with you by marriage, then the flesh should be used, and you render to the divine Law, that is, to love what is demanded.