“Our people are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God.”

—  Martin Niemöller

Statement on behalf of the Confessional Church, signed by nine other pastors, as quoted in TIME magazine (27 July 1936) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,847755,00.html
Context: Our people are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God. In this connection we must warn the Führer, that the adoration frequently bestowed on him is only due to God. Some years ago the Führer objected to having his picture placed on Protestant altars. Today his thoughts are used as a basis not only for political decisions but also for morality and law. He himself is surrounded with the dignity of a priest and even of an intermediary between God and man... We ask that liberty be given to our people to go their way in the future under the sign of the Cross of Christ, in order that our grandsons may not curse their elders on the ground that their elders left them a state on earth that closed to them the Kingdom of God.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Nov. 19, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Our people are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God." by Martin Niemöller?
Martin Niemöller photo
Martin Niemöller 13
German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor 1892–1984

Related quotes

Yeshayahu Leibowitz photo

“From a religious point of view the triadic classification of being as nature, spirit, and God has no validity. There is only the dyad: nature, which includes the human spirit, and God. The only way man can break the bonds of nature is by cleaving to God; by acting in compliance with the divine will rather than in accordance with the human will.”

Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903–1994) israeli intellectual

"Judaism, Human Values and the Jewish State" (1995)

Carl Sagan photo

“If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?”

Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World

Source: The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), Ch. 1 : The Most Precious Thing, p. 12
Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Fulton J. Sheen photo

“Hitler had no need of God: in his own conceit, he was a god.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: The Armor of God (1943), Ch. 1, p. 4

“Trying to separate cigarettes and alcohol, that's against God's will!”

Ed Byrne (1972) Irish comedian

Pedantic & Whimsical (2006)

“Confession,” he said, “must be sincere. It must come from the heart. False confession, made to avoid the pain of Questioning, is useless to Church and God alike. Our aim is salvation; the salvation of the souls of these poor wretches in our charge, if necessary by the breaking of their bodies. Set against this, all else is straw in the wind.”

Keith Roberts book Pavane

Third measure “Brother John” (pp. 108-109)
Pavane (1968)

“Our claim is not that pair bonding is humanity’s singular mating pattern. Our claim instead is simply that the pair bond is the most common setting for sex and reproduction in our species, that it has been for a long time, and that this has left a deep imprint on our evolved nature.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013), p. 145

Mitt Romney photo

“The fundamental principle of faith of Judeo Christian (belief) is there is a God, who is our heavenly Father and all the people on this earth and every speck of humanity on this earth is a creation of God … And every creation of humanity is a child of God.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

Faith in America speech, 2007

Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“Is it the gods who set this fire in our hearts, or do we each make our fierce desire into a god?”

Ursula K. Le Guin book Lavinia

Source: Lavinia (2008), p. 66

“What's the point of God making us human if He doesn't want us to act like we're human?'
'To see if we can rise above our natures,'Megan said.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer book Life As We Knew It

Source: Life As We Knew It

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Good Bye
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?

Related topics