Martin Luther

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times.

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.

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

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Spare the rod and spoil the child - that is true. But, beside the rod, keep an apple to give him when he has done well.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

Pray like it all depends on God, then when you are done, go work like it all depends on you.

However, they have not acquired a perfect mastery of the art of lying; they lie so clumsily and ineptly that anyone who is just a little observant can easily detect it. But for us Christians they stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath.

[The papists] ought to have sympathy with us weak, poor Christians, and not condemn us or make fun of us because we are learning so childishly to toddle along the benches, nay, to creep in the mire, and cannot skip and dance, on such light feet and legs, over and outside of God's commandments, as they do, the strong heroes and giants ... God forbid that we should!

Unto him who is able to keep us from falling, and lift us from the dark to the bright mountain of hope, from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy, to him be power and authority for ever and ever.

The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right. Next to faith this is the highest art - to be content with the calling in which God has placed you.

Is it not wonderful news to believe that salvation lies outside ourselves?

For God does not want to save us by our own but by an extraneous righteousness, one that does not originate in ourselves but comes to us from beyond ourselves, which does not arise on earth but comes from heaven.

In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life. Here below all is incomprehensible.

To pray well is the better half of study.

The less I pray, the harder it gets; the more I pray, the better it goes.

For some years now I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a mighty tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant.