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Sunday, November 01, 2009

Favorite Luther Quotes

Luther was a colorful figure. Here are a few of my favorite Luther quotes:

“We old folks have to find our cushions and pillows in our tankards. Strong beer is the milk of the old.”

"Your thoughts of God are too human." - Luther in a Letter to Erasmus

"I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away."

"If the devil should say, 'Do not drink,' you should reply to him, 'On this
very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I
shall drink a generous amount.'" - Dr. Martin Luther in a letter to Jerome Weller, July, 1530

"For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel."

"I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self."

"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."

"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess."

"Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave."

"Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world."

"Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime."

"Peace if possible, truth at all costs."

"Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has."

"To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer."

"When schools flourish, all flourishes."

"Even grammarians and schoolboys on street corners know that nothing more is signified by verbs in the imperative mood than what ought to be done, and that what is done or can be done should be expressed by words in the indicative. How is it that you theologians are twice as stupid as schoolboys, in that as soon as you get hold of a single imperative verb you infer an indicative meaning, as though the moment a thing is commanded it is done, or can be done?" - Bondage of the Will

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Some good quotes

Matt said...

Luther was brilliant, but also unfortunately completely off his rocker at times. That point about peace and truth, or the one about faith and reason, for instance! But my favorite Luther quote is a modified version of one you've got here: "Next to the Word of God, God's greatest gift to mankind is beer." Now that's a quote I can stand behind!