Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Martin Luther (German Protestant Theologian)

Martin Luther (1483–1546) was the German monk who initiated the Protestant Reformation that challenged the teachings and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther preached that salvation came by grace through faith alone rather than by deeds.

Born in Eisleben, Saxony, Luther studied at the University of Erfurt, became an Augustinian friar, and later a Doctor of Theology. In 1510, he visited Rome as a representative of many Augustinian monasteries and was horrified by the corruption he found there. Outraged, he published his “95 Theses” and condemned papal abuses and the sale of indulgences. Between 1519 and 1520, Luther wrote a series of pamphlets developing his ideas, which spread quickly throughout Europe.

Within a year, Pope Leo X dismissed Luther as an outspoken “son of iniquity.” Excommunicated in 1521, Luther refused to recant his assertions at an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire. It was at this gathering that he pronounced his famous words, “Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me.”

Emperor Charles V declared Luther an outlaw and a heretic. In 1534, Luther published a complete translation of the Bible into German, underlining his belief that people should be able to read it in their language. The translation contributed significantly to the spread and development of the German language.

The foremost ideas of Luther’s reform movement were treasured by the Lutheran Churches who summarized Luther’s essential message in their Book of Concord (1580.)

In his final years, Luther wrote diatribes against the Jews, the papacy, and the Anabaptists, a radical wing of the Reformation movement. He wrote Against the Jews and Their Lies (1542) calling upon authorities to burn Jewish synagogues and to expel Jews if they did not convert to Christianity. Some scholars believe that these points of view sowed the seeds of anti-Semitism in Germany.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Martin Luther

When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.
Martin Luther
Topics: Anger

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
Topics: Wishes

Holiness consisteth not in a cowl or in a garment of gray.—When God purifies the heart by faith, the market is sacred as well as the sanctuary; neither remaineth there any work or place which is profane.
Martin Luther

Our Lord God doeth work like a printer, who setteth the letters backward; we see and feel well His setting, but we shall see the print yonder—in the life to come.
Martin Luther

So our Lord God commonly gave riches to those gross asses to whom he vouchsafed nothing else.
Martin Luther
Topics: Wealth, Riches

The law of God is what we must do; the gospel is what God will give.
Martin Luther
Topics: Law

The God of this world is riches, pleasure and pride.
Martin Luther
Topics: God

Pray, and let God worry
Martin Luther
Topics: Worry

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
Topics: Religion, Bible

Forgiveness is God’s command.
Martin Luther
Topics: Forgiveness

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.
Martin Luther
Topics: Music, Heart

There is no justification without sanctification, no forgiveness without renewal of life, no real faith from which the fruits of new obedience do not grow.
Martin Luther

You must learn that if you are a Christian, you will without a doubt experience all kinds of opposition and evil inclinations in the flesh. For when you have faith, there will be a hundred more evil thoughts and a hundred more temptations than before.
Martin Luther
Topics: Temptation

Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.
Martin Luther
Topics: Reason

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Martin Luther
Topics: Miscellaneous, Prayer

How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.
Martin Luther
Topics: Procrastination

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.
Martin Luther
Topics: Eternity, Difficulty, Time

I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of Gods word becomes corrupt. Because of this we can see what kind of people they become in the universities and what they are like now. Nobody is to blame for this except the pope, the bishops, and the prelates, who are all charged with training young people. The universities only ought to turn out men who are experts in the Holy Scriptures, men who can become bishops and priests, and stand in the front line against heretics, the devil, and all the world. But where do you find that? I greatly fear that the universities, unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell.
Martin Luther

If you could understand a single grain of wheat, you would die of wonder.
Martin Luther

To do so no more is the truest repentance.
Martin Luther
Topics: Repentance

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
Topics: Music

Sin is, essentially, a departure from God.
Martin Luther
Topics: Sin

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

Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed so is the body.
Martin Luther
Topics: Worry

Some plague the people with too long sermons; for the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated.
Martin Luther
Topics: Evangelism, Preaching

I have to hurry all day to get time to pray.
Martin Luther
Topics: Prayer

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
Martin Luther
Topics: Decisions, Indecision, Heart

Grace is given to heal the spiritually sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes
Martin Luther
Topics: Grace

The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing.
Martin Luther
Topics: Writing, Evil, Literature, Reading, Books

Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.
Martin Luther
Topics: Faith

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