Quotes from Martin Luther

Do not argue at all with the devil and his temptations or accusations and arguments, nor, by the example of Christ, refute them. Just keep silent altogether; turn away and hold him in contempt. For no one conquers the devil by arguing with him, since he is incomparably more clever than all of us. But if you should not fight with the devil, much less should you do it with man. Rather you should put up with him, because he does not do the work himself, but the devil uses man as his tool.

Take the talents of wisdom and integrity. Without Christ, wisdom is double foolishness and integrity double sin, because they not only fail to perceive the wisdom and righteousness of Christ, but hinder and blaspheme the salvation of Christ.

We are old fools. The more educated and intelligent we become, the less we know and understand.

For so it usually happens in the world. Righteous men are regarded as sinners and vice versa.

That is, as he says here, he should bend off neither to the right hand nor to the left, but move forward straight and firmly in prosperity and adversity, in strength and weakness, in glory and shame, clinging faithfully and bravely to the Word of God alone.

They turn the heart away much more strongly than adversity and want do, as he says in his song (Deut. 32:15): "Having become swollen, fat, and thick, he rebelled"; and (Prov. 1:32): "The prosperity of the foolish destroys them"; as is said also in the German proverb: "You need strong legs to hold up under good days." For man endures evil more easily than good, as the poet says: "Luxury has invaded as a deadlier foe."2

Even if there were 10 Popes or a thousand Popes, there would be no schism. The Unity of Christendom could be preserved under numerous heads just as the separated nations under different sovereigns dwell in concord.

God will not permit all men to enter heaven; those who are his own he will receive with all readiness.

prophets? The ears of our generation have been made so delicate by the senseless multitude of flatterers that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours is not approved of, we cry out that we are being bitterly assailed; and when we can repel the truth by no other pretence, we escape by attributing bitterness, impatience, intemperance, to our adversaries.

The Turk is the rod of the wrath of the Lord our God... ...resisting the Turks, whom he presented as a scourge intentionally sent by God to sinning Christians, and that resisting it would have been equivalent to resisting the will of God...

Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say: 'Would it were evening!' and at evening you shall say: 'Would it were morning!'" I have not found a place which sets forth the misery of a bad conscience so clearly, with such fitting and appropriate words and expressions.

For whatever is said against a righteous man is said indirectly against God, who is in the righteous.

His righteousness rises above the sins of all men; His life is more powerful than all death; His salvation is more unconquerable than all hell.

I have no dispute with any man concerning morals, but only concerning the word of truth. In all other things I will yield to any one, but I neither can nor will forsake and deny the word. He who thinks otherwise of me, or has taken in my words in another sense, does not think rightly, and has not taken in the truth.

For so it usually happens in the world. Righteous men are regarded as sinners and vice versa. No one in the whole world is a sinner except the man who has the Word and believes in Christ. But those who persecute and hate the Word are the righteous ones. As Christ says (cf. John 16:2): "They think they are offering God a service.

The Lord who has given us power to teach and to hear, let Him also give us the power to serve and to do.

See, according to this rule the good things we have from God should flow from one to the other and be common to all, so that everyone should "put on" his neighbor and so conduct himself toward him as if he himself were in the other's place.

I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable, and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ.

Every time people are converted, it is because God has come to them and overcome their ignorance by showing the Gospel to them.

The Lord is our glory. Such gifts as we possess we acknowledge to be the gifts of God, given to us for the good of the Church of Christ. Therefore we are not proud because of them. We know that more is required of them to whom much is given, than of such to whom little is given. We also know that God is no respecter of persons. A plain factory hand who does his work faithfully pleases God just as much as a minister of the Word.

God wants to give us more than we ask for, not just fulfill our weak prayers. Joseph

For a man does not serve that he may put men under obligations. He does not distinguish between friends and enemies or anticipate their thankfulness or unthankfulness, but he most freely and most willingly spends himself and all that he has, whether he wastes all on the thankless or whether he gains a reward.

But if you command me to believe or to get rid of certain books, I will not obey; for there you are a tyrant and overreach yourself...

These are the three things, it is commonly said, that mark a good preacher; first, that he take his place; secondly, that he open his mouth and say something; thirdly, that he know when to stop.