Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”

“One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons”

“To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ”

“If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.”

“Gods truth judges created things out of love, and Satans truth judges them out of envy and hatred.”

“To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the”

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes - and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent”

“A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol”

“To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us.”

“We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”

“It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.”

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”

“Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.”

“The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”

“The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to h”

“Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy”

Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared (Luther).

When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.