Martin Luther

No man can bring his own righteousness before God.

Temptations are not overcome through our own strength.

Take away assertions, and you take away Christianity. Nay, the Holy Spirit is given unto them from heaven, that He may glorify Christ, and confess Him even unto death.

When others do blaspheme, let us pray.

We cannot pray without faith in Christ the Mediator. The Turks, the Jews, and the ungodly may rehearse and speak the words of prayer after one, but they cannot pray.

Without trouble it is only a cold prattling, and goeth not from the heart; the common saying is "Need teacheth to pray."

Prayer is a strong wall, and a fort of the church; it is a godly Christian's weapon, which no man knoweth nor findeth, but only he who hath the spirit of grace and of prayer.

When our consciences are settled in peace, quieted and comforted through God's spirit, then we must show also and prove our faith by such good works which God hath commanded.

The Gospel is like a fresh, mild, and cool air in the extreme heat of summer, that is, a solace and comfort in the anguish of the conscience. But as this heat proceedeth from the rays of the sun, so likewise the terrifyi…

Wilt thou be an upright Minister and a Shepherd? then love must only do it; thy love to me must do the deed, otherwise it is impossible. For who can endure unthankfulness? to study away his wealth and health, and afterwa…

No human creature can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but only those that have learned it by experience. I know, as often as I have earnestly prayed, that I have been richly heard, and have…

At such a time I must arm myself and encounter the devil with this text, namely: That Jesus Christ died for me, and through him I have a gracious God and Father; Christ hath made an atonement for me.

How should God deal with us? Good days we cannot bear, evil we cannot endure. Giveth he riches unto us? then are we proud. Giveth he poverty unto us? then are we dismayed, we are impatient, and murmur against him.

Thus goeth it always with God's power in our weakness; for when he is weakest in us, then is he strongest.

Heaven and earth, the castles and palaces of all Emperors, Kings, and Princes, are no way sufficient to make a dwelling-place for God; yet, in a silly human creature that keepeth his Word he will dwell.

When we have God's Word pure and clear, then we are secure, we are negligent and regard it not, we think it will always so remain; we do not watch and pray against the devil, who is ready to tear the Word out of our hear…

True and upright Divinity consisteth in the practice, use, and exercise; her foundation is Christ; she taketh hold by faith on his passion, death, and resurrection.

My best advice and counsel is that we draw water out of the true fountain, that is, diligently to read in the Bible. He is a learned Divine that is well grounded in the Text; for one text and sentence out of the Bible is…

When I find myself in temptation, then I quickly lay hold and fasten on some text in the Bible which Christ Jesus layeth before me, namely, that he died for me, from whence I have and receive comfort.

Without trials and temptations we should never understand anything of the Scriptures; no, not although we diligently read and heard the same. The Holy Ghost must be the only master and tutor to teach us therein.

It is always necessary that the substance or essence of a person be good before there can be any good works and that good works follow and proceed from a person who is already good.

The mad mob does not ask how it could be better, only that it be different. And when it then becomes worse, it must change again. Thus they get bees for flies, and at last hornets for bees.

Although indulgences are the very merits of Christ and of His saints and so should be treated with all reverence, they have in fact nonetheless become a shocking exercise of greed.

I know God only as he became human, so shall I have him in no other way.

Man is by nature unable to want God to be God. Indeed, he himself wants to be God, and does not want God to be God.

Insurrection never brings about the desired improvement. For insurrection lacks discernment; it generally harms the innocent more than the guilty. Hence, no insurrection is ever right, no matter how right the cause it se…

Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.

Our preaching does not stop with the law. That would lead to wounding without binding up, striking down and not healing, killing and not making alive, driving down to hell and not bringing back up, humbling and not exalt…

A Christian has no need of any law in order to be saved, since through faith we are free from every law. Thus all the acts of a Christian are done spontaneously, out of a sense of pure liberty.

Christ ought to be preached with this goal in mind — that we might be moved to faith in him so that he is not just a distant historical figure but actually Christ for you and me.

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent," he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

By God's grace, I know Satan very well. If Satan can turn God's Word upside down and pervert the Scriptures, what will he do with my words — or the words of others?

Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.

If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin.

As Christians we are all kings and priests and therefore lords of all.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.

If it were art to overcome heresy with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth.

What does it mean to have a god? Answer: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from…

Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.

What can the church decree, that is not decreed in the Scriptures?

Be skeptics and academics far from us Christians; but be there with us assertors twofold more determined than the stoics themselves.

For not to delight in assertions, is not the character of the Christian mind: nay, he must delight in assertions, or he is not a Christian.

Our Lord God electeth from hearts, to whom he revealeth his Word, and therewithal he giveth them mouths to speak it; preserveth and maintaineth it, not by sword, but through his Divine Power.

God will keep his Word through the writing-pen upon earth; the Divines are the heads or quills of the pens, but the Lawyers are the stumps.

The second Psalm is one of the best Psalms. I love that Psalm with my heart. It strikes and slashes valiantly amongst the Kings, Princes, Counsellors, Judges, etc.

Let the adversaries rage and swell their fills, and as long as they can. God hath set the sea her bounds; he suffers the same to beat and rage with her waves, as if they would over-run, cover, and drown everything; yet,…

Tyrants, sectaries, seducers, and heretics do nothing else but drive us into the Bible, to make us read more diligently therein, and with more fervency to sharpen our prayers.

I did not learn my divinity at one only time, but I was constrained to search deeper and deeper, to which my temptations brought me; for no man, without trials and temptations, can attain to the true understanding of the…

I esteem those to be the best Preachers which teach the common people and youth most plainly and simply, without subtlety, screwed words, or enlargements.