Authors:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes - Page 5

All Quotes Achievement Advent Anxiety Atheism Being Thankful Character Children Christ Christianity Christmas Church Community Desire Devil Discipleship Discipline Earth Evil Faith Giving God Goodness Grace Gratitude Hate Hatred Heart Home Honor Humanity Inspiration Inspirational Jesus Joy Judging Judging Others Life Listening Love Lying Marriage Mercy Morning Obedience Pain Past Peace Poverty Prayer Reality Rejection Religion Responsibility Running Sacrifice Salvation Sanctification Silence Sin Son Soul Struggle Suffering Temptation Thankfulness Today Waiting War Worship
I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his

I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued in a few seconds. In the almost 50 years that I have worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Prayer, Men, Doctors

There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God's commandment. Wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of almighty God. Not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won not with weapons, but with God. They are won when the way leads to the cross.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Selfish, Mean, Destiny

The Lord confers great honor on his servants when he brings them suffering.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Honor, Suffering, Lord

And if we ask how are we to know where our hearts are, the answer is just as simple - everything which hinders us from loving God above all things and acts as a barrier between ourselves and our obedience to Jesus is our treasure, and the place where our heart is.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus, Heart, Simple
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.120, SCM Press

The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Men, Expression, Law
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.96, SCM Press

Not until one person desires to keep his own bread for himself does hunger ensue.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Desire, Doe, Bread
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.51, SCM Press

Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Gratitude, Memories, Being Thankful
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2011). “Letters Papers from Prison”, p.79, Simon and Schuster

I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Mean, Thinking, Suffering
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2018). “Letters and Papers from Prison: New edition, with a new introduction by Samuel Wells”, p.137, SCM Press

A person who loves community tends to destroy it. But a person who loves people creates community wherever he goes.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
People, Community, Persons

The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Community, Church
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2013). “Letters to London: Bonhoeffer’s previously unpublished correspondence with Ernst Cromwell, 1935-36”, p.93, SPCK

Once a man has truly experienced the mercy of God in his life he will henceforth aspire only to serve.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Men, Mercy Of God, Mercy
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1954). “Life Togehter”

A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Fellowship, Members
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.65, SCM Press

time is the most valuable thing that we have, because it is the most irrevocable.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Valuable, Valuable Things, Irrevocable
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2011). “Letters Papers from Prison”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

Judgement is the forbidden objectivization of the other person which destroys single-minded love. I am not forbidden to have my own thoughts about the other person, to realize his shortcomings, but only to the extent that it offers to me an occasion for forgiveness and unconditional love, as Jesus proves to me.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus, Unconditional Love, Judgement
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.185, Simon and Schuster

Just as our love for God begins with listening to God's Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Love, Christian, Listening
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1996). “Life Together: Prayerbook of the Bible”, Fortress Pr

A father acts on behalf of his children by working, providing, intervening, struggling, and suffering for them. In so doing, he really stands in their place. He is not an isolated individual, but incorporates the selves of several people in his own self.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Children, Father, Struggle

One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one’s own strength, one has to inquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Book, Thinking, Answers

Pain is a holy angel who shows us treasures that would otherwise remain forever hidden; through him men and women have become greater than through all the joys of the world. It must be so and I tell myself this in my present situation over and over again. The pain of suffering and of longing, which can often be felt even physically, must be there, and we cannot and need not talk it away. But it needs to be overcome every time, and thus there is an even holier angel than the one of pain; that is, the one of joy in God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Pain, Angel, Men

I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Brother, Hate, Matter
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.65, SCM Press

Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Evil, Combat, Refuse
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.70, SCM Press

The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Grace, Repentance, Preaching
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1966). “The Way to Freedom: 1935-1939, from the Collected Works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer”, New York : Harper & Row

It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.... There is a truth which is of Satan. Its essence is that under the semblance of truth it denies everything that is real. It lives upon hatred of the real world which is created and loved by God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Real, Liars, Lying

Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Mean, Responsibility, Political

One's task is not to turn the world upside down, but to do what is necessary at the given place and with a due consideration of reality.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Reality, World, Tasks
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1965). “Ethics”

Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Friday, Easter, Fate
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2011). “Letters Papers from Prison”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

You May Also Like: