Martin Luther (1483–1546): German priest and theologian. The library holds 62 quotes by Martin Luther, drawn from Table-Talk, Speech at the Diet of Worms, Psalm. Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (trans. by Frederic H. Hedge) and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honour; and we see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song.
Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter. Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen!
Great people and champions are special gifts of God, whom He gives and preserves; they do their work and achieve great actions, not with vain imaginations or cold and sleepy cogitations, but by motion of God.
Love is an image of God, and not a lifeless image; not one painted on paper, but the living essence of the divine nature, which beams full of all goodness.
All which happens in the whole world happens through hope. No husbandman would sow a grain of corn if he did not hope it would spring up and bring forth the ear. How much more are we helped on by hope in the way to eternal life!
The allegory of a sophist is always screwed; it crouches and bows like a snake, which is never straight, whether she go, creep, or lie still; only when she is dead, she is straight enough.
I never work better than when I am inspired by anger; when I am angry I can write, pray, and preach well; for then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mundane vexations and temptations depart.
In His death He is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in the resurrection, a conqueror; in the ascension, a king; in the intercession, a high priest.
The human heart is like a millstone in a mill; when you put wheat under it, it turns, and grinds, and bruises the wheat into flour; if you put no wheat in, it still grinds on; but then it is itself it grinds and slowly wears away.
“REST IN THE LORD; WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM.” In Hebrew, “be silent to God, and let Him mould thee.” Keep still, and He will mould thee to the right shape.
God’s love gives in such a way that it flows from a Father’s heart, the well-spring of all good. The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious; as among ourselves we say of even a trifling gift, “It comes from a hand we love,” and look not so much at the gift as at the heart.
Allegories and spiritual significations, when applied to faith, and that seldom, are laudable; but when they are drawn from the life and conversation, they are dangerous, and, when men make too many of them, pervert the doctrine of faith. Allegories are fine ornaments, but not of proof.
All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask.
He who believes in God is not careful for the morrow, but labors joyfully and with a great heart. “For He giveth His beloved, as in sleep.” They must work and watch, yet never be careful or anxious, but commit all to Him, and live in serene tranquillity; with a quiet heart, as one who sleeps safely and quietly.
One evening when Luther saw a little bird perched on a tree, to roost there for the night, he said, “This little bird has had its supper, and now it is getting ready to go to sleep here, quite secure and content, never troubling itself what its food will be, or where its lodging on the morrow. Like David, it ‘abides under the shadow of the Almighty.’ It sits on its little twig content, and lets God take care.”