Martin Luther — Heidelberg Disputation

None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience.

The law says, "do this," and it is never done. Grace says, "believe in this," and everything is already done.

It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire.

I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor…

True, then, are these two sayings: 'Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works'; 'Bad works do not make a bad man, but a bad man does bad works.'

Let us therefore hold it for certain and firmly established that the soul can do without everything except the word of God, without which none at all of its wants are provided for. But, having the word, it is rich and wa…