Luther quotes...

For Your Reading Enjoyment...
(most quotes taken from THEOLOGY OF THE REFORMERS, by Timothy George...specific citations can be found in the books footnotes.)

"The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone...How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?"

"I simply taught, preached, wrote God's Word; otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept, or drank Wittenburg bear with my Philip and my Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing, the Word did it all."

(When it was suggested that he become a doctor of theology): "You will deprive me of my life!"

"There is nothing God rejects as strongly as half-goodness, and every human claim based on it."

"In this way, I say, and no other, does one learn how to deal properly with the question of predestination. It will be manifest that you believe in Christ. If you believe, then you are called. And if you are called, then you are most certainly predestined. Do not let this mirror and throne of grace be torn away from before you eyes...contemplate Christ given for us. Then God willing, you will feel better."

"When I was twenty years old I had not yet seen a Bible."

"How difficult it was for [Gideon] to fight the enemy at those odds. If I had been there, I'd have befouled my breeches for fright."

(Luther's Name for the Roman Catholic Papacy): "whore-church of the devil"

"If the pope had control over the souls in purgatory, why doesn't he open the gate and let them all out?"

"Dear Kate, we arrived in Halle today at eight, but did not continue on to Eisleben because a big Anabaptist met us with waves and hunks of ice. She flooded the land and threatened to rebaptize us..." (speaking of the Saale River)

“I am of a different mind ten times in the course of a day. But I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away. When he tempts me with silly sins I say, “Devil, yesterday I broke wind too. Have you written it down on your list?” …I remind myself of the forgiveness of sin and of Christ and I remind Satan of the abomination of the pope. This abomination is so great that I am of good cheer and rejoice, and I confess that the abomination of the papacy after the time of Christ is a great consolation in me.”


Final fun fact: Zwingli loved the Alps and thought they pointed to God's grandeur, Luther regarded them as huge warts on the face of the earth.