The collection / 192 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01c. 1514 AD

A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Our helper He amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing.

Martin Luther / quote

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02c. 1514 AD

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

Martin Luther / quote

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03c. 1514 AD

Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen!

Martin Luther / quote

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04c. 1514 AD

For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.

Martin Luther / quote

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05c. 1514 AD

A faithful and good servant is a real godsend; but truly 't is a rare bird in the land.

Martin Luther / quote

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06c. 1514 AD

In His death He is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in the resurrection, a conqueror; in the ascension, a king; in the intercession, a high priest.

Martin Luther / quote

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07c. 1514 AD

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, self.

Martin Luther / quote

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08c. 1514 AD

God's love gives in such a way that it flows from a Father's heart, the well-spring of all good. The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious; as among ourselves we say of even a trifling gift, "It comes from a hand we love," and look not so much at the gift as at the heart.

Martin Luther / quote

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09c. 1514 AD

All which happens in the whole world happens through hope. No husbandman would sow a grain of corn if he did not hope it would spring up and bring forth the ear. How much more are we helped on by hope in the way to eternal life!

Martin Luther / quote

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10c. 1514 AD

Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners; she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.

Martin Luther / quote

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11c. 1514 AD

Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song.

Martin Luther / quote

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12c. 1514 AD

Let all your preaching be in the most simple and plainest manner; look not to the prince, but to the plain, simple, gross, unlearned people, of which cloth the prince also himself is made. If I, in my preaching, should have regard to Philip Melancthon and other learned doctors, then should I do but little good. I preach in the simplest manner to the unskillful, and that giveth content to all. Hebrew, Greek and Latin I spare until we learned ones come together.

Martin Luther / quote

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13c. 1514 AD

I would not have preachers torment their hearers, and detain them with long and tedious preaching.

Martin Luther / quote

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14c. 1514 AD

A lie is like a snowball; the farther you roll it, the bigger it becomes.

Martin Luther / quote

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15c. 1514 AD

Cannon and firearms are cruel and damnable machines. I believe them to have been the direct suggestion of the devil.

Martin Luther / quote

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16c. 1514 AD

Divinity should be empress, and philosophy and other arts merely her servants.

Martin Luther / quote

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17c. 1514 AD

Earth hath nothing more tender than a woman's heart when it is the abode of piety.

Martin Luther / quote

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18c. 1514 AD

Every great book is an action, and every great action is a book.

Martin Luther / quote

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19c. 1514 AD

Faith is that courage in the heart which trusts for all good to God.

Martin Luther / quote

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20c. 1514 AD

Faith is the creator of the Godhead; not that it creates anything in the Divine Eternal Being, but that it creates that Being in us.

Martin Luther / quote

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21c. 1514 AD

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

Martin Luther / quote

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22c. 1514 AD

Great people and champions are special gifts of God, whom He gives and preserves; they do their work and achieve great actions, not with vain imaginations or cold and sleepy cogitations, but by motion of God.

Martin Luther / quote

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23c. 1514 AD

He who receives a sacrament does not perform a good work; he receives a benefit.

Martin Luther / quote

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24c. 1514 AD

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

Martin Luther / quote

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