Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy...He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone.

That fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than that fact that I will die.

The first service that one owes to others consists in listening to them.

After death something new begins, over which all powers of the world of death have no more might.

The devil doesn't fill us with hatred for God, but with forgetfulness of God.

If there is no element of asceticism in our lives, if we give free rein to the desires of the flesh (taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible to the world), we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ. When the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self-renunciation.

Comfort the troubled, and trouble the comfortable.

The future of modern society depends much more on the quiet heroism of the very few who are inspired by God. These few will greatly enjoy the divine inspiration and will be prepared to stand for the dignity of Man and true freedom and to keep the Law of God, even of it means martyrdom or death.

Who am I? this or the other? <br /> Am I one person today and tomorrow another? <br /> Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, <br /> and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling? <br /> Or is something within me still like a beaten army fleeing <br /> in disorder from a victory already achieved? <br /> Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. <br /> Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

To be sure, God shall call you, and us, only at the hour that God has chosen. Until that hour, which lies in God's hand alone, we shall be protected even in the greatest danger; and from our gratitude for such protection ever new readiness surely arises for the final call

The life of discipleship is not the hero-worship we would pay to a good master, but obedience to the Son of God.

Cheap grace is the idea that \'grace\' did it all for me so I do not need to change my lifestyle. The believer who accepts the idea of \'cheap grace\' thinks he can continue to live like the rest of the world. Instead of following Christ in a radical way, the Christian lost in cheap grace thinks he can simply enjoy the consolations of his grace.

Every word of Holy Scripture was a love letter from God directed very personally to us and he asked us whether we loved Jesus.

Because I am a Christian, therefore, every day in which I do not penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of God's Word in Holy Scripture is a lost day for me. I can only move forward with certainty upon the firm ground of the Word of God. And, as a Christian, I learn to know the Holy Scriptures in no other way than by hearing the Word preached and by prayerful meditation.

The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one's life towards a goal. Without such a goal, chastity is bound to become ridiculous. Chastity is the sine qua non of lucidity and concentration.

Being a Christan is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.

Absolute seriousness is never without a dash of humor.

Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.

The fearful danger of the present time is that above the cry for authority, we forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority, and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here, is infringing eternal laws, and taking upon himself superhuman authority, which will eventually crush him.

Christian love draws no distinction between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemy's hatred, the greater his need of love.

Prayer is the supreme instance of the hidden character of the Christian life.

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.

I believe that God both wills and is able to bring good out of everything, even the worst... I believe that even our mistakes and wrongdoing are not fruitless...

He who fears the face of God does not fear the face of man. He who fears the face of man does not fear the face of God.

If the heart is devoted to the mirage of the world, to the creature instead of the Creator, the disciple is lost... However urgently Jesus may call us, His call fails to find access to our hearts... for they have already been given to another.

If we look more closely, we see that any violent display of power, whether political or religious, produces an outburst of folly in a large part of mankind; indeed, this seems actually to be a psychological and sociological law: the power of some needs the folly of others. It is not that certain human capacities, intellectual capacities for instance, become stunted of destroyed, but rather that the upsurge of power makes such an overwhelming impression that men are deprived of their independent judgment, and...give up

Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.

God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises...

The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from a Christian community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; in the poor brother Christ is knocking at the door.

Desires repeatedly mastered for the sake of present duty make us richer. Lack of desire is poverty.