Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes
The test of faith is whether I can make space for difference. Can I recognize God’s image in someone who is not in my image? – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question but to make us progressively aware of a mystery. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to himself. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Christian cannot simply take for granted the privilege of living among other Christians. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christianity is not about religion, but about a new creation out of love. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The church is the church only when it exists for others. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. – 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. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only those who believe can obey, and only those who are obedient can believe. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Human love constructs its own image of the other person, of what he is and what he should become. It takes the life of the other person into its own hands. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. – 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
To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In a Christian community, everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Where God tears great gaps, he will assuredly fill them with himself. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The will of God needs nothing more than people who will serve it without personal commitment. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is always wrong to be right in matters where ethics play a part. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
One should spare themselves neither care nor labor in this life so that they may afterward be happy in the life to come. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God’s word, but testify to it. Trust to the Word. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only the person who has become confrontational in the deepest part of their being with their sins in the power of Jesus Christ’s Cross thereby gains the right to see others in the truth of God. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Let him who cannot be alone beware of community… Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The difference between despair and hope is just a different way of telling stories from the same facts. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer