Great Throughts Treasury

"To progress is always to begin always to begin again."

"Tomorrow I plan to work, work, from early until late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."

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

"Undoubtedly they do more and viler things than those which we know and discover."

"We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone."

"We are beggars: this is true."

"We are nothing with all our gifts be they ever so great, except God assist us."

"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen."

"Wealth is the smallest thing on earth, the least gift that God has bestowed on mankind."

"We rightly confess, in our articles of belief, that there is a holy church; for it is invisible, dwelling in a place that none can attain unto, and therefore her holiness cannot be seen; for God doth so hide and cover her with infirmities, with errors, with divers forms of the cross and offences, that according to the judgment of reason, it is nowhere to be seen."

"Well, there is nothing we can do about it. We have to put up with these snakes, dogs, and swine surrounding us and corrupting the Gospel both in doctrine and in life. Wherever there are faithful preachers they always have to take this. Such is the fortune of the Gospel in the world."

"What can only be taught by the rod and with blows will not lead to much good; they will not remain pious any longer than the rod is behind them."

"What does it mean to have a god? or, what is 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 the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god."

"What is our death but a night's sleep? For as through sleepy all weariness and faintness pass away and cease, and the powers of the spirit come back again, so that in the morning we arise fresh and strong and joyous; so at the Last Day we shall rise again as if we had only slept a night, and shall be fresh and strong."

"What I am after in this dispute is to me something serious, necessary, and indeed eternal, something of such a kind and such importance that it ought to be asserted and defended to the death, even if the whole world had not only to be thrown into strife and confusion, but actually to return to total chaos and be reduced to nothingness."

"What the heathen had in their wood, we have in our opinions."

"What is sought by means of free choice is to make room for merits."

"What would it profit us to possess and perform everything else and be like pure saints, if we meanwhile neglected our chief purpose in life, namely, the care of the young?"

"?What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and work flow."

"Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior."

"When I am angry I can pray well and preach well."

"When schools flourish, all flourishes."

"When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called, her Eva--that is to say, the Mother of All. He did not style her wife, but simply mother--mother of all living creatures. In this consists the glory and the most precious ornament of woman."

"When God wants to speak and deal with us, he does not avail himself of an angel but of parents, of the pastor, or of our neighbor."

"When some people say, as they do, that when we preach faith alone good works are forbidden, it is as if I were to say to a sick man, If you had health you would have the full use of all your limbs, but without health the works of all your limbs are nothing, and from this he wanted to infer that I had forbidden the works of his limbs. Whereas on the contrary I meant that the health must first be there to work all the works of all his limbs. In the same way faith must be the master-workman and captain in all the works, or they are nothing at all."

"When God's righteousness is mentioned in the gospel, it is God's action of declaring righteous the unrighteous sinner who has faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness by which a person is justified (declared righteous) is not his own but that of another, Christ."

"When it comes to faith, what a living, creative, active, powerful thing it is. It cannot do other than good at all times. It never waits to ask whether there is some good work to do, rather, before the question is raised, it has done the deed, and keeps on doing it"

"When the devil comes at night to worry me, this is what I say to him: ?Devil, I have to sleep now. That is God?s commandment, for us to work by day and sleep at night.? If he keeps on nagging me and trots out my sins, then I answer: ?Sweet devil, I know the whole list. But I have done even more sin which is not on your list. Write there also that I have shit in my breeches. Hang it around your neck and wipe your mouth on it.? Then, if he won?t cease to accuse me of sins, I say in contempt: ?Holy Satan, pray for me.?"

"When we are inclined to boast of our position [as Christians] we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are."

"Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to."

"Where temporal government or law alone prevails, there sheer hypocrisy is inevitable, even though the commandments be God's very own. For without the Holy Spirit in the heart no one becomes truly righteous, no matter how fine the works he does. On the other hand, where the spiritual government alone prevails over land and people, there wickedness is given free rein and the door is open for all manner of rascality, for the world as a whole cannot receive or comprehend it."

"Where God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel."

"Who loves not woman, wine, and song remains a fool his whole life long."

"Whoever teaches differently from what I have taught, or whoever condemns me therein, he condemns God and must remain a child of hell."

"Why do you rant and brag with such a spate of words, as if you wanted to overwhelm me with a sort of tempest and deluge of oratory-which nevertheless falls with the greater force on your own head, while my ark rides aloft in safety?"

"Where, then, is our orator running off to, who was going to speak about a palm, but talks of nothing but a gourd? It started as a wine jar, why does it end as a water jug?"

"Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved."

"With such and the like fopperies were petty brains troubled."

"Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!"

"With reference to the elect we might distinguish between three classes. First, there are those who are satisfied with God?s will, as it is, and do not murmur against God, but rather believe that they are elected. They do not want to be damned. Secondly, there are those who submit to God?s will and are satisfied with it in their hearts. At least they desire to be satisfied, if God does not wish to save, but reject them. Thirdly, there are those who really are ready to be condemned if God should will this. These are cleansed most of all of their own will and carnal wisdom. And these experience the truth of Canticles 8:6: Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death. Such love is always joined with cross and tribulation, for without it the soul becomes lax, and does not seek after God, nor thirst after God, who is the Fountain of Life."

"Women and girls begin to bare themselves behind and in front, and there is nobody to punish and hold in check, and besides, God?s word is mocked."

"You have quite dampened by spirit and eagerness, and left me exhausted before I could strike a blow. There are two reasons for this: first, your cleverness in treating the subject with such remarkable and consistent moderation as to make it impossible for me to be angry with you; and secondly, the luck or chance or fate by which you say nothing on this important subject that has not been said before."

"You see then, that Diatribe truly possesses a free choice in her handling of Scriptures, so that words of one and the same type are for her obliged to prove endeavor in one place and freedom in another, exactly as she pleases."

"You have as much laughter as you have faith."

"You see, however, which is called the Court of Rome, and which neither you nor any man can deny to be more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom, and quite, as I believe, of a lost, desperate and hopeless impiety."

"You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you."