Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.
• 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.
• To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
• The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.
• The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
• Politics are not the task of a Christian.
• One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.
• Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.
• 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 his enemy.
• God's truth judges created things out of love, and Satan's truth judges them out of envy and hatred.
• It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.
• Human love has little regard for the truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the beloved person.
• If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.
• 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.
• 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.
• A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol.