Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

About Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship became a modern classic.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The author likens crisis, and particularly war, to stop motion photography in its capacity to make changes plain that are ordinarily too gradual to be seen.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Music... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Lord, whatsoever this day may bring, Thy name be praised. Be gracious unto me and help me. Grant me strength to bear whatsoever Thou dost send, And let not fear overrule me. I trust Thy grace, and commit my life wholly into Thy Hands. Whether I live ...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

o endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us (Mark 15:34).[...] Before God and with him we live without God. God allows himself to be edged out of the world and onto the cross. God is weak and powerless in the world, and that is exactly the way,...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Politics are not the task of a Christian.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Author Bio

  • NameDietrich Bonhoeffer
  • DescriptionGerman Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi
  • BornFebruary 4, 1906
  • DiedApril 9, 1945
  • CountryGermany
  • ProfessionTheologian; Philosopher
  • AwardsRighteous Among The Nations; Civil Courage Prize