Quotes from book
Table Talk

Name: Table Talk
Author: Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Table Talk is a collection of Martin Luther's sayings around the dinner table at Lutherhaus, Luther's home, but also at other times and locations, such as walks in the garden or notes taken while on journeys. It is based on notes taken by various students of Luther between 1531 and 1544. It was compiled by Johannes Mathesius, J. Aurifaber, V. Dietrich, Ernst Kroker, and several others, and published at Eisleben in 1566.Mathesius spoke enthusiastically of the privilege of eating with Luther and hearing him converse. Earlier notetakers had written down only the serious remarks of Luther, but Mathesius also wrote down the facetious or even damaging remarks, a sign of the increasing reverence in which Luther was held.

“Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a-begging.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

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Table Talk (1569)

“The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery. Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them of clay, in the way Adam was fashioned.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

752 http://books.google.com/books?id=ZUAuAAAAYAAJ&q=%22The+reproduction+of+mankind+is+a+great+marvel+and+mystery+Had+God+consulted+me+in+the+matter+I+should+have+advised+him+to+continue+the+generation+of+the+species+by+fashioning+them+of+clay+in+the+way+Adam+was+fashioned%22&pg=PA307#v=onepage
Table Talk (1569)

“But the Jews are so hardened that they listen to nothing; though overcome by testimonies they yield not an inch. It is a pernicious race, oppressing all men by their usury and rapine. If they give a prince or magistrate a thousand florins, they extort twenty thousand from the subjects in payment. We must ever keep on guard against them.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

863
Table Talk (1569)

“so it is with human reason, which strives not against faith, when enlightened, but rather furthers and advances it.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

On Justification CCXCIV
Table Talk (1569)

“A theologian is born by living, nay dying and being damned, not by thinking, reading, or speculating.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

352
Table Talk (1569)

“The Clergy is the greatest hindrance to faith.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

58
Table Talk (1569)

“There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

292
Table Talk (1569)

“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but--more frequently than not--struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

353
Table Talk (1569)

“And I must speak plainly. If I were a judge, I would have such a poisonous, syphilitic whore tortured by being broken on the wheel and having her veins lacerated, for it is not to be denied what damage such a filthy whore does to young blood, so that it is unspeakably damaged before it is even fully grown and destroyed in the blood.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

Source: Table Talk (1569), pp. 552-554 (1566); cited in Susan C. Karant-Nunn & Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks [editors and translators], Luther on Women: a Sourcebook, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 157-158)

“A faithful and good servant is a real godsend; but truly 'tis a rare bird in the land.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

156
Table Talk (1569)

“Out of special hatred for our faith, the devil has sent some whores here to destroy our poor young men... such a syphilitic whore can poison ten, twenty, thirty or more of the children of good people, and thus is to be considered a murderer, or worse, as a poisoner.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

Table Talk (1569)

“Mother love is stronger than the filth and scabbiness on a child, and so the love of God toward us is stronger than the dirt that clings to us.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

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Table Talk (1569)

“Let us not flutter too high, but remain by the manger and the swaddling clothes of Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

Source: Table Talk (1569) 50

“We are beggars: this is true.”
Wir sind bettler. Hoc est verum.

Martin Luther book Table Talk

"The Last Written Words of Luther," Table Talk No. 5468, (16 February 1546), in Dr. Martin Luthers Werke (1909) as translated by James A. Kellerman, Band 85 (TR 5) 317–318 http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/beggars.txt
Table Talk (1569)

“I think these things [firearms] were invented by Satan himself, for they can’t be defended against with (ordinary) weapons and fists. All human strength vanishes when confronted with firearms. A man is dead before he sees what’s coming.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

3552
Table Talk (1569)

“… a penny saved is better than a penny earned.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

The Duty of a Husband and Wife (17 March 1539), No. 4408. LW 54:337 http://books.google.com/books?id=zsbXAAAAMAAJ&q=%22penny+saved+is+better+than+a+penny+earned%22&dq=%22penny+saved+is+better+than+a+penny+earned%22&lr=
Table Talk (1569)

“They are splendidly built [Italian Hospitals], the best food and drink are at hand, the attendants are very diligent, the physicians are learned, the beds and coverings are very clean, and the bedsteads are painted. As soon as a sick man is brought in, all his clothes are taken off in the presence of a notary and are faithfully kept for him. He is then laid in a handsomely painted bed with clean sheets. Two physicians are fetched at once. Attendants come with food and drink, served in immaculate glass vessels; these are not touched with as much as a finger but are brought on a tray.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

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Table Talk (1569)

“I am entirely of the opinion that the papacy is the Antichrist. But if anyone wants to add the Turk, then the Pope is the spirit of the Antichrist, and the Turk is the flesh of the Antichrist. They help each other in their murderous work. The latter slaughters bodily and by the sword, the former spiritually and by doctrine.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

330
Table Talk (1569)

“The Mass is the greatest blasphemy of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an abomination the like of which has never been in Christendom since the time of the Apostles.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

171
Table Talk (1569)

“For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel…Thus is the Devil ever God's ape.”

Martin Luther book Table Talk

67. Compare "Where God hath a temple, the Devil will have a chapel", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, part III, section 4, member 1, subsection 1
Table Talk (1569)