Quotessence
Home / Authors / Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther Quotes

Monk

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsMenChristChristianShouldDevilSinHeartWorldPeopleReligiousDoeHolyPrayerScriptureGraceHumorMayChristianityGiving

Famous Martin Luther Quotes

“As to the common people, ... one has to be hard with them and see that they do their work and that under the threat of the sword and the law they comply with the observance of piety, just as you chain up wild beasts. All our experience with history should teach us, when we look back, how badly human wisdom is betrayed when it relies on itself. Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God. Reason should be destroyed in all Christians. Reason is the Devil's greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil's appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom ... Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism... She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”

PeopleReasonFaith
Author:Martin Luther
Create image

“No greater mischief can happen to a Christian people, than to have God's word taken from them, or falsified, so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant we and our descendants be not witness to such a calamity.”

PeopleHappensChristianTakenClearGreaterPureWitnessGrantsCalamityMischiefDescendants
Book:The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt
Create image

“Dear rulers ... I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school. ... If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, because in this case we are warring with the devil, whose object it is secretly to exhaust our cities and principalities of their strong men.”

PeopleIfsMenChildrenWarGovernmentSchoolStrongCitiesCasesMilitaryObjectsDutyBearsCitizensFitAuthorityDevilDearObligationRulersRiflesSpearsStrong ManMilitary Service
Author:Martin Luther
Create image

“On coming to the house, they (the Magi), saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. (Matthew 2:11) [This] adoration, too, was not the same as the worship of God. In my opinion they did not yet recognize him as God, but they acted in keeping with the custom mentioned in Scripture, according to which Kings and important people were worshiped; this did not mean more than falling down before them at their feet and honoring them.”

PeopleMeanChildrenImportantMotherFallHouseOpinionSawsFeetKingsWorshipDown AndScriptureCustomsMaryFalling DownAdorationMatthewMother Mary
Author:Martin Luther
Create image

“Let all your preaching be in the most simple and plainest manner; look not to the prince, but to the plain, simple, gross, unlearned people, of which cloth the prince also himself is made. If I, in my preaching, should have regard to Philip Melancthon and other learned doctors, then should I do but little good. I preach in the simplest manner to the unskillful, and that giveth content to all. Hebrew, Greek and Latin I spare until we learned ones come together.”

PeopleIfsShouldLooksLittlesMadeTogetherSimpleShould HaveDoctorsRegardGreekLatinPreachingShould ISparesSimplestGrossHebrewPhilip
Author:Martin Luther
Create image

“Sleep is a most useful and most salutary operation of nature. Scarcely any minor annoyance angers me more than the being suddenly awakened out of a pleasant slumber. I understand that in Italy they torture poor people by depriving them of sleep. `Tis a torture that cannot long be endured.”

PeopleLongSleepPoorHealingOperationsTorturePleasantMinorsPoor PeopleAwakenedSlumberAnnoyanceDepriving
Book:The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt
Create image

“The devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God....Music is a gift and grace of God, not an invention of men. Thus it drives out the devil and makes people cheerful. Then one forgets all wrath, impurity, and other devices.”

PeopleMenSoundForgetMusicGraceTroubleAnxietyMusic IsDevilInventionDevicesWord Of GodCheerfulRestlessWrathGrace Of GodSorrowfulImpuritySound Of Music
Author:Martin Luther
Create image

“The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone...How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?”

PeopleShouldFirstsChildrenUseChristianEvilAsksNamesChristPoorChristianityTeachingMinesBagsLutherMaggotsLutherans
Author:Martin Luther
Create image

“The Jews are the most miserable people on earth. They are plagued everywhere, and scattered about all countries, having no certain resting place. They sit as on a wheelbarrow, without a country, people or government... but they are rightly served, for seeing they refused have Christ and his gospel, instead of freedom they must have servitude.”

PeopleCountryGovernmentEarthCertainChristSeeingJewMiserableServitudeMiserable PeopleWheelbarrows
Author:Martin Luther
Create image