Martin Luther

The pope, a nemesis, was his 'dearest little ass-pope.'

The book of Esther I toss into the Elbe. I am such an enemy to the book of Esther that I wish it did not exist, for it Judaizes too much and has in it a great deal of heathenish foolishness.

Nor let ministers cease studying until they have discovered and are sure that they have taught the devil to death and have become more learned than God himself and all His saints.

We should not break our heads at work and injure our bodies … I myself used to do such things, and I have racked my brains because I still have not overcome the bad habit of overworking. Nor shall I overcome it as long as I live.

A man remains foolish until his 40th year, when he begins to recognize his foolishness; then life is soon over.

If the earth is fit for laughter, then surely heaven is filled with it. Heaven is the birthplace of laughter.

You have as much laughter as you have faith.

The Jews are a heavy burden, a plague, a pestilence, a sheer misfortune for our country.

If I had to baptize a Jew, I would take him to the bridge of the Elbe, hang a stone around his neck and push him over with the words 'I baptize thee in the name of Abraham.'

Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has.

A woman is to be from home only when she is going to church or to the garden.

The peasants deserve death for three reasons: they have broken their oath of allegiance, they have committed murder, and they have robbed monasteries.

If they can bear to live among us Christians and Jews, then they should be forced to work like women in childbirth.

The pope is the Antichrist.

I would rather be a sow than a Christian if I had to believe that God is as cruel as some say.

The Turks are the rod of the wrath of the Lord our God.

A man who has no wife is only half a man.

The word and work of God is quite clear, namely, that women were made to be either wives or prostitutes.

Kill them all, God will know his own.

If I had to do it all over again, I would still burn the pope’s bull.