Talk:Martin Luther

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A quote commonly attributed to Martin Luther

Can someone offer help regarding this quote which is often attributed to Martin Luther as having been said at The Diet of Worms: "Since your Majesty and your Lordships ask for a plain answer, I will give you one without either horns or teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture or by right reason (for I trust neither in popes nor in councils, since they have often erred and contradicted themselves) - unless I am thus convinced, I am bound by the texts of the Bible, my conscience is captive to the Word of God." Is this a true quote? Was their a transcription of The Diet of Worms? Was it said by Luther at any point? I've seen it listed in books such as "The Life and Letters of Martin Luther" by Persevered Smith and many other books which quote the Persevered Smith book, but is their any original material that supports this claim - I was unable to gauge Persevered Smith's research into this matter. Does the quote exist anywhere prior to Persevered Smith's work?

A quote commonly attributed to Martin Luther

"Why don't you fart nor burp? Wasn't the food to your liking?" would be the translation of a quote attributed to M. L. in Germany. (The German version: "Warum furzet und rülpset ihr nicht? Hat es euch nicht geschmecket?" - sometimes it's "das Essen" instead of "es".) I wondered why the quote hasn't been listed yet; but perhaps it isn't as famous in the English speaking world than in the German speaking one. Anyway, I'm German myself. --85.177.153.196 17:26, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Apparently this alleged quote is, along with many others, a 19th century attribution. https://www.jumpradio.de/morningshow/thema/faktoderfake/fakt-oder-fake-luther-100.html Fringe Dweller (talk) 02:34, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Unsourced

• The fool will upset the whole science of astronomy.
  • About Nicolaus Copernicus

• Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these infirmities, as though they proceeded from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads.

• If [women] become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth--that is why they are there.
  • I think that might be something a blogger wrote about Luther's position. Reference here: http://thesinofadamandeveaccordingtoluther.blogspot.com/ . --Histrion (talk) 12:26, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

• Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God.
  • Said to be from V, 1312

• Sin cannot tear you away from him [Christ], even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders.

• There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.

• We are all ministers of the Gospel. Some of us just happen to be clergymen.

• Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason.
  • Said to be from V, 425

• Nothing good ever comes of violence

• The more you wash, the dirtier you get. (diary)

• Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he know where his believers are?

• They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet (or a wanderer).

"The organ in the worship of God is an ensign of Baal. The Roman Catholic borrowed it from the Jews."

A while back while doing a quick reading on the Wikipedia A capella article, it said that Martin Luther opposed instruments. The sources there said that he opposed them, i.e. “^ Martin Luther, Mcclintock & Strong's Encyclopedia Volume VI, page 762,” are off-line. When I used them in a Google search, I quickly got this, Bible Topics In The Christian Library, a site that seem to oppose instrumental music, but it had an interesting quote allegedly from Luther: "The organ in the worship of God is an ensign of Baal. The Roman Catholic borrowed it from the Jews." I wonder if it could be used in related articles here.174.137.237.65 19:04, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

In The Baptist Magazine (1818), section "On Music in Churches", the question is asked: Is it lawful for Christians, when they are assembled together for divine worship, to unite instrumental music with vocal in the worship of God?

Relevant part of the answer: It [instrumental music] is retained in the Lutheran church, contrary to the opinion of Luther, who, as Eckard confesses, reckoned organs among the ensigns of Baal. [1]

The quote you cite is most likely a paraphrase. ~ DanielTom (talk) 19:32, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Attributed

"God creates out of nothing, therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him." Cannot find any reference to a primary source, but this (or equivalent translations) are widely published as a Luther quote.75.130.135.17 02:06, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Copernicus

This quote from his Table Talk seems to be a better attested than White's book (which is questionable by 21st century scholarship). However, I do not have access to the cited source - I am only relying on a second-hand citation from a net resource. It seems to be more researched, but I don't know. I'm being bold in the chance that is better than White. Can someone verify or correct this? TomS TDotO (talk) 17:59, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

Crude Quotes of Luther Censored

Martin Luther was a disturbed man. After trying to post some of these quotes from his own written works, I was censored. I'm not sure what the purpose of this site is, when you cannot attribute one's words to them for the public to see at a glance, especially when the citations are given truthfully. One of the famous ones being:

• "“I’m fed up with the world, and it is fed up with me. I’m quite content with that. The world thinks that if it is only rid of me everything will be fine, and it will accomplish this. After all, it’s as I’ve often said: I’m like a ripe stool and the world’s like a gigantic anus, and so we’re about to let go of each other.”
  • (Martin Luther, Table Talk, 5537).

Another being:

• “’Silence, you heretic! What comes out of our mouth must be kept!’ I hear it—which mouth do you mean? The one from which the farts come? (You can keep that yourself!) Or the one into which the good Corsican wine flows? (Let a clog shit into that!)”
  • (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 41: 281)

He was un-Christian and hateful toward Jews, and instead of praying for their conversion he suggested violent acts toward them as read here:

• “God has struck them with “madness and blindness and confusion of mind.” So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the blood of the children they have shed since then (which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin). We are at fault in not slaying them.”
  • (Martin Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, ch. 14, 1543)

He even mocked the Word of God that did not agree with his own reasoning:

• “St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.”
  • (Martin Luther, Preface to the New Testament)

• “About this book of the Revelation of John, I leave everyone free to hold his own opinions. I would not have anyone bound to my opinion or judgment. I say what I feel. I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic. . . . For myself, I think it approximates the Fourth Book of Esdras; I can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it. . . . let everyone think of it as his own spirit leads him. My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it.”
  • (Martin Luther, Preface to the Revelation of St. John, 1522)

Clearly this man had mental issues and demonic disturbances. The devil used him to destroy the Faith Jesus founded, just as he has used many others. It is sad to know that this unholy and vulgar man is praised by many, and it is absurd that he is regarded and esteemed to be a great theologian.

This is however my opinion. Any comments?—This unsigned comment is by 69.20.195.34 (talk • contribs) .

Your opinion is not welcome in the article. Adding things like "Read on as Luther incriminates and accuses himself..." to the article is vandalism, and that's why your edits were reverted, not because of the quotes themselves. No one cares about your opinion. Next time, just post the quotes without your personal commentary. ~ DanielTom (talk) 21:58, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Hungarian Luther Quotes

A Hungarian wikiqoutes page for Martin Luther exists, but is not listed in the side bar. I would love to see it listed with the other languages. Can anyone help? Here it is: http://hu.wikiquote.org/wiki/Luther_M%C3%A1rton

Y Done ~ DanielTom (talk) 23:16, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Quote on childbearing attributed to Luther

I did a quick Google search and I couldn't find a source. If it's not genuine is it worth mentioning in Disputed?

“If a woman dies in [child]bearing, let her die; she is there to do it.”

Or: "If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing, she is there to do it."

--Chriswaterguy (talk) 23:35, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Y Done. Thx for the suggestion. ~ DanielTom (talk) 00:51, 23 October 2015 (UTC) P.S. I found the source: [2] ~ DanielTom (talk) 01:15, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

Quotes requiring editorial work

The following quotation is attributed to Luther, and yet the text contains "Luther describes", indicating that the text is in fact another author's description of Luther's text. These quotes are historically important, but they require editorial work in order to be presented accurately. ~ Peter1c (talk) 12:08, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

• Luther describes Jews as a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth." Luther wrote that they are "full of the devil's feces … which they wallow in like swine," and the synagogue is an "incorrigible whore and an evil slut". In the first ten sections of the treatise, Luther expounds, at considerable length, upon his views concerning Jews and Judaism and how these compare against Christians and Christianity. Following this exposition, Section XI of the treatise advises Christians to carry out seven remedial actions. These are –

for Jewish synagogues and schools to be burned to the ground, and the remnants buried out of sight;

for houses owned by Jews to be likewise razed, and the owners made to live in agricultural outbuildings;

for their religious writings to be taken away;

for rabbis to be forbidden to preach, and to be executed if they do;

for safe conduct on the roads to be abolished for Jews;

for usury to be prohibited, and for all silver and gold to be removed and "put aside for safekeeping";

and for the Jewish population to be put to work as agricultural slave laborers.

• On The Jews and Their Lies

Unsourced quotes about Luther

• Galileo's doctrine seemed to such colossal minds as Bellarmin, and Luther, and Bossuet, "evidently contrary to Scripture."
  • White, ibid., 1877, p. 149

A misattribution.

According to this blog site - https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/5-quotes-that-luther-didnt-actually-say/ - not only did Luther not say...

"The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays—not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors.

The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."

...he would not have. (Too American capitalist.) Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 02:41, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Lectures on Genesis Chapters 15-20

• “"The heinous conduct of the people of Sodom is extraordinary, inasmuch as they depart from the natural passion and longing of the male for the female, which was implanted into nature by God, and desired what is altogether contrary to nature. Whence comes this perversity? Undoubtedly from Satan who, after people have once turned away from the fear of God, so powerfully suppresses nature that he blots out the natural desire and stirs up a desire that is contrary to nature.” — elca.org

To be cited in the WQ article, we don't know the publishing date of the first edition of the Lectures on Genesis Chapters 15-20.