Quotes from Martin Luther

People must have righteous principals in the first, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions.

Blood alone moves the wheels of history

You must learn to call on the Lord. Don't sit all alone or lie on the couch, shaking your head and letting your thoughts torture you. Don't worry about how to get out of your situation or brood about your terrible life, how miserable you feel, and what a bad person you are. Instead, say, "Get a grip on yourself, you lazy bum! Fall on your knees, and raise your hands and eyes toward heaven. Read a psalm. Say the Lord's Prayer, and tearfully tell God what you need.

Hier stehe Ich, Ich kann nicht anders." ("Here I stand, I can do no other")

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

It is not imitation that makes sons. It is sonship that make imitators.

He who believes God, recognizes Him as true and faithful, and himself as a liar; for he mistrusts his own thinking as false, and trusts the Word of God as being true, though it absolutely contradicts his own reasoning.

The purpose of marriage is not to have pleasure and to be idle, but to procreate and bring up children, to support a household. This, of course, is a huge burden full of great cares and toils. But you have been created by God to be a husband or a wife that you may learn to bear these troubles. Those who have no love for children are... unworthy of being called men or women; for they despise the blessing of God, the creator and author of marriage.

One becomes a theologian by living, by dying, and by being damned, not by understanding, reading, and speculation.

One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ.

I compare it with a lie, which like to a snowball, the longer it is rolled the greater it becomes.

God does not slack his promises because of our sins... or hasten them because of our righteousness and merits. He pays no attention to either.

If you try to deal with sin in your conscience, let it remain there, and continue to look at it in your heart, your sins will become too strong for you. They will seem to live forever. But when you think of your sins as being on Christ and boldly believe that he conquered them through his resurrection, then they are dead and gone. Sin can't remain on Christ. His resurrection swallowed up sin.

An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects

The Pope is a mere tormentor of conscience. The assembly of his greased and religious crew in praying was altogether like the croaking of frogs, which edified nothing at all.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times

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.

I owe you a small thanks, for you have made me far more sure of my own position by letting me see the case for free choice put forward with all the energy of so distinguished and powerful a mind, but with no other effect than to make things worse than before.

Our whole life should be manly; we should fear God and put our trust in him.

Everything bad in the Old Testament (and there's a lot) is there to point out our sin, while everything good in the Old Testament is there to point us to our Savior.

If God were willing to sell His grace, we would accept it more quickly and gladly than when He offers it for nothing.

Thy kingdom come, that Thou rule us, and not: we ourselves," for there is nothing more perilous in us than our reason and will.

If God does not open and explain Holy Writ, no one can understand it; it will remain a closed book, enveloped in darkness.

If God had not permitted the people of Jerusalem to be torn asunder and driven them from the land, but had let them keep it after before, no one could convince them that they are not God`s chosen people.