I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.
– Martin Luther
Contentment
Is it not wonderful news to believe that salvation lies outside ourselves?
– Martin Luther
Salvation
The law works fear and wrath; grace works hope and mercy.
– Martin Luther
Grace
Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason. I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.
– Martin Luther
Scripture | Conviction
What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow.
– Martin Luther
Family | Work
I would not give one moment of heaven for all the joy and riches of the world, even if it lasted for thousands and thousands of years.
– Martin Luther
Heaven
Next to faith this is the highest art – to be content with the calling in which God has placed you.
– Martin Luther
Contentment | Calling
Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.
– Martin Luther
Prayer
I feel as if Jesus Christ died only yesterday.
– Martin Luther
Jesus
Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.
– Martin Luther
Faith | Service
Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.
– Martin Luther
Faith | Believing
To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
– Martin Luther
Prayer
The less I pray, the harder it gets; the more I pray, the better it goes.
– Martin Luther
Prayer
We all carry about in our pockets His very nails.
– Martin Luther
Atonement
They gave our Master a crown of thorns. Why do we hope for a crown of roses?
– Martin Luther
Suffering
A lie is like a snowball: the further you roll it the bigger it becomes.
– Martin Luther
Lying
Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.
– Martin Luther
Music | Beauty
Men are not made religious by performing certain actions which are externally good, but they must first have righteous principles, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions.
– Martin Luther
Religion | Virtue | Men
Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime.
– Martin Luther
Eternity | Nature | Resurrection
Forgiveness is God’s command.
– Martin Luther
Forgiveness
If thou art wise thou knowest thine own ignorance; and thou art ignorant if thou knowest not thyself.
– Martin Luther
Wisdom | Ignorance
Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.
– Martin Luther
Marriage | Home
For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.
– Martin Luther
Satan
Christ took our sins and the sins of the whole world as well as the Father’s wrath on his shoulders, and he has drowned them both in himself so that we are thereby reconciled to God and become completely righteous.
– Martin Luther
Grace | Atonement | Righteousness
If you young fellows were wise, the devil couldn’t do anything to you, but since you aren’t wise, you need us who are old.
– Martin Luther
Wisdom | Satan | Youth
To gather with God’s people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.
– Martin Luther
Worship | Unity
The devil does not stay where music is.
– Martin Luther
Satan | Music
I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.
– Martin Luther
Education | Diligence | Youth
In his life, Christ is an example, showing us how to live; in his death, he is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in his resurrection, a conqueror; in his ascension, a king; in his intercession, a high priest.
– Martin Luther
Christ | Resurrection
Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.
– Martin Luther
Music | Discipline | Gentleness
God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.
– Martin Luther
The Bible | The Gospel | Nature
You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.
– Martin Luther
Conscience | Feelings
Peace if possible, but truth at any rate.
– Martin Luther
Peace | Truth
If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.
– Martin Luther
Heaven | Laughter
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?
– Martin Luther
Christians
To do so no more is the truest repentance.
– Martin Luther
Repentance
Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved. Now choose what you want.
– Martin Luther
Sin | Grace | Freedom
God uses lust to impel men to marry, ambition to office, avarice to earning, and fear to faith. God led me like an old blind goat.
– Martin Luther
Lust | Men
Hell is paved with good intentions.
– Martin Luther
Hell
Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.
– Martin Luther
Music
The recognition of sin is the beginning of salvation.
– Martin Luther
Sin | Repentance
When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called her Eva, that is to say, the Mother of All. He did not style her wife, but simply mother, mother of all living creatures. In this consists the glory and the most precious ornament of woman.
– Martin Luther
Marriage | Mothers | Sanctification
There is no more lovely, friendly or charming relationship, communion or company, than a good marriage.
– Martin Luther
Marriage | Relationships
When schools flourish, all flourishes.
– Martin Luther
Education
Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.
– Martin Luther
Contentment
Our Lord commonly giveth Riches to such gross asses, to whom he affordeth nothing else that is good.
– Martin Luther
Finances
The highest gift and favor of God is a pious, kind, godly, and domestic wife, with whom thou mayest live peaceably, and to whom thou mayest intrust all thy possessions, yea, thy body and thy life.
– Martin Luther
Family | Piety
For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
– Martin Luther
Reasoning | Nature
The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious.
– Martin Luther
Giving | The Heart
You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.
– Martin Luther
Gossip | Apathy
Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.
– Martin Luther
Faith | Reasoning
If the devil were wise enough and would stand by in silence and let the Gospel be preached, he would suffer less harm. For when there is no battle for the Gospel it rusts and it finds no cause and no occasion to show its vigor and power. Therefore, nothing better can befall the Gospel than that the world should fight it with force and cunning.
– Martin Luther
Satan | The Gospel
Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.
– Martin Luther
Believing | Death
Allegories are fine ornaments and good illustrations, but not proof.
– Martin Luther
Philosophy
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.
– Martin Luther
Faith | The Heart
God has set the type of marriage everywhere throughout the creation. Every creature seeks its perfection in another. The very heavens and earth picture it to us.
– Martin Luther
Marriage | Creation
In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life.
– Martin Luther
Hope
The fewer the words, the better the prayer.
– Martin Luther
Prayer
A preacher should have the skill to teach the unlearned simply, roundly, and plainly; for teaching is of more importance than exhorting.
– Martin Luther
Preaching
Sin is, essentially, a departure from God.
– Martin Luther
Sin
I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.
– Martin Luther
Conscience
Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in the resurrection shall have a little golden tail.
– Martin Luther
Heaven | Comfort | Resurrection
Music is one of the fairest and most glorious gifts of God, to which Satan is a bitter enemy, for it removes from the heart the weight of sorrow, and the fascination of evil thoughts.
– Martin Luther
Music | Gifts | The Heart
My temptations have been my Masters in Divinity.
– Martin Luther
Temptation
Pray, and let God worry.
– Martin Luther
Prayer
The God of this world is riches, pleasure and pride.
– Martin Luther
Finances | Pride
Love is an image of God, and not a lifeless image, but the living essence of the divine nature which beams full of all goodness.
– Martin Luther
Love
If he have faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays himself. He breaks out. He confesses and teaches this gospel to the people at the risk of life itself.
– Martin Luther
Faith | Evangelism | The Gospel
Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.
– Martin Luther
Sin | Temptation
Faith, like light, should always be simple and unbending; while love, like warmth, should beam forth on every side, and bend to every necessity of our brethren.
– Martin Luther
Faith
Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.
– Martin Luther
Perseverance
First I shake the whole Apple tree, that the ripest might fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf.
– Martin Luther
Perseverance
I have to hurry all day to get time to pray.
– Martin Luther
Prayer
Before I translated the New Testament out of the Greek, all longed after it; when it was done, their longing lasted scarce four weeks. Then they desired the books of Moses; when I had translated these, they had enough thereof in a short time. After that, they would have the Psalms; of these they were soon weary, and desired other books. So it will be with the book of Ecclesiastes, which they now long for, and about which I have taken great pains. All is acceptable until our giddy brains be satisfied; afterwards we let familiar things lie, and seek after new.
– Martin Luther
Scripture
In the bonds of Death He lay Who for our offense was slain; But the Lord is risen today, Christ hath brought us life again, Wherefore let us all rejoice, Singing loud, with cheerful voice, Hallelujah!
– Martin Luther
Praise
For God does not want to save us by our own but by an extraneous righteousness, one that does not originate in ourselves but comes to us from beyond ourselves, which does not arise on earth but comes from heaven.
– Martin Luther
Atonement | Righteousness
Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song.
– Martin Luther
Music
A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing, Our helper he amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing.
– Martin Luther
God
I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men.
– Martin Luther
Faithful
The human heart is like the millstone in a mill; when you put wheat under it, it turns and grinds 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.
– Martin Luther
Suffering | The Heart
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.
– Martin Luther
Christians
If ever a monk could get to heaven through monastic discipline, I was that monk. And yet my conscience would not give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, ‘You didn’t do that right. You weren’t contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.’ The more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak, and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more I daily found it more uncertain, weaker, and more troubled.
– Martin Luther
Salvation | Discipline
It is neither safe nor prudent to do anything against conscience.
– Martin Luther
Conscience
The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider – the riders contend for its possession.
– Martin Luther
Rebellion
Farewell unhappy, hopeless, blasphemous Rome! The Wrath of God has come upon you, as you deserve. We cared for Babylon, and she is not healed; let us then leave her, that she may become the habitation of dragons, spectres, and witches.
– Martin Luther
Hypocrisy
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.
– Martin Luther
Philosophy
The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.
– Martin Luther
Service
Every thing that is done in the world is done by hope.
– Martin Luther
Hope
I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist.
– Martin Luther
Heresy
I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, self.
– Martin Luther
Fear
The law of God is what we must do; the gospel is what God will give.
– Martin Luther
The Gospel
Faith cannot be inherited or gained by being baptized into a Church. Faith is a matter between the individual and God.
– Martin Luther
Faith
I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.
– Martin Luther
Fear
My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.
– Martin Luther
Music | Illness
The hair is the richest ornament of women. Of old, virgins used to wear it loose, except when they were in mourning.
– Martin Luther
Life | Women
It is prosperity that we cannot endure.
– Martin Luther
Prosperity | Endurance
Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.
– Martin Luther
Justice | Conscience
The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.
– Martin Luther
The Bible | Christ
Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.
– Martin Luther
Peace | Justice
Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?
– Martin Luther
Faith