Martin Luther

Leader of the Protestant Reformation

Early Modern influential 281 sayings

Sayings by Martin Luther

No other sin exists in the world save unbelief.

c. 1530s-1540s — Table Talk, or other collected sayings
Philosophical Unverifiable

Sometimes it is necessary to commit some sin out of hatred and contempt for the Devil.

1521 — Letter to Melanchthon (Sins Boldly), August 1, 1521, often quoted in relation to 'Sin Boldly'
Philosophical Unverifiable

You must say my sins are not mine; they are not in me at all; they are the sins of another; they are Christ's and none of my business.

1535 — Commentary on Galatians
Philosophical Unverifiable

Christianity is nothing but a continual exercise in feeling that you have no sin although you sin, but that your sins are thrown on Christ.

1535 — Commentary on Galatians
Philosophical Unverifiable

Be a sinner and SIN BOLDLY, but believe more boldly still.

1521 — Letter to Melanchthon, August 1, 1521
Philosophical Unverifiable

The saints must be good, downright sinners.

c. 1530s-1540s — Table Talk, or other collected sayings
Philosophical Unverifiable

I am but a man prone to let himself be swept off his feet by society, drunkenness, and the movements of the flesh.

c. 1530s-1540s — Letter or Table Talk
Philosophical Unverifiable

You owe nothing to God except faith and confession. In all other things He lets you do whatever you like. You may do as you please, without any danger of conscience whatsoever.

c. 1530s-1540s — Table Talk, or other collected sayings
Philosophical Unverifiable

I HAVE GREATER CONFIDENCE IN MY WIFE AND MY PUPILS THAN I HAVE IN CHRIST.

c. 1530s-1540s — Attributed saying, likely hyperbole in context
Philosophical Unverifiable

GOD OFTEN ACTS LIKE A MADMAN ... I look upon God no better than a scoundrel.

c. 1530s-1540s — Table Talk, or other collected sayings
Philosophical Unverifiable

This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.

1545 — Preface to the Latin Works, 1545
Philosophical Unverifiable

True humility does not know that it is humble. If it did, it would be proud from the contemplation of so fine a virtue.

c. 1520s-1540s — Sermon or letter, often cited
Philosophical Unverifiable

Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.

c. 1520s-1540s — Sermon or letter, often cited
Philosophical Unverifiable

Whoever does not know God hidden in suffering does not know God at all.

1518 — Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 21
Philosophical Unverifiable

God hides in order not to be found where humans want to find God. But God also hides in order to be found where God wills to be found.

1525 — On the Bondage of the Will
Philosophical Unverifiable

I frankly confess that even if it were possible I should not wish to have free choice given to me, or to have anything left in my own hands by which I might strive for salvation.

1525 — On the Bondage of the Will
Philosophical Unverifiable

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.

1525 — On the Bondage of the Will
Philosophical Unverifiable

If any man doth ascribe of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright.

1521 — Grund und Ursach aller Artikel D. Martin Luthers, Article 36
Philosophical Unverifiable

Mankind has a free will; but it is free to milk cows and to build houses, nothing more.

c. 1530s-1540s — Table Talk, or other collected sayings
Philosophical Unverifiable

What God wills is not right because he ought, or was bound, so to will; on the contrary, what takes place must be right, because he so wills it.

1525 — On the Bondage of the Will
Philosophical Unverifiable