Quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.

Wherever it pleases God to put man in this world, the Christian must be ready for martyrdom and death. It is only in this way that man learns faith.

If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could he help us? If he is not true man, how could he help us?

Man has learned to cope with all questions of importance without recourse to God as a working hypothesis.

Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life.

It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can raise the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them.

Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.

There is no way to peace along the way to safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture.

One's task is not to turn the world upside down but to do what is necessary at the given place and with a due consideration of reality.

The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law.

We have learnt, rather too late, that action comes, not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

If you board the wrong train it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.

Music... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.

The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.

Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.....We must not.....assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.

It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they should lead them.

May God in His mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may He lead us to Himself.

Faith without works is not faith at all, but a simple lack of obedience to God.

The deep meaning of the cross of Christ is that there is no suffering on earth that is not borne by God.

God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.

Possessions are not God's blessing and goodness, but the opportunities of service which he entrusts to us.

God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises.

If you reject God's commanding word, you will not receive God's gracious word.