Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, expert of theology and one of the founders of the Confessing Church who is however best known for being a fierce anti-Nazi activist.
His book ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, written in 1937, is considered among the most important books of the time and is still regarded as a classic. Famous Dietrich Bonhoeffer quotes will touch your soul, brighten up your life and bring best out of you.
If you’re searching for inspiring quotes from famous Christians that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of quotes by Fulton J. Sheen, best Gordon B. Hinckley quotes and greatest Henri Nouwen quotes.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes
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
There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve — even in pain — the authentic relationship. – 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
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. – 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
Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder. – 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
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God, who will thwart our plans and frustrate our ways time and again, even daily, by sending people across our path with their demands and requests. We can, then, pass them by, preoccupied with our important daily tasks, just as the priest-perhaps reading the Bible-passed by the man who had fallen among robbers. When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised in our lives to show us that God’s way, and not our own, is what counts. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In me there is darkness, But with You there is light; I am lonely, but You do not leave me; I am feeble in heart, but with You there is help; I am restless, but with You there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with You there is patience; I do not understand Your ways, But You know the way for me.” “Lord Jesus Christ, You were poor And in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am. You know all man’s troubles; You abide with me When all men fail me; You remember and seek me; It is Your will that I should know You And turn to You. Lord, I hear Your call and follow; Help me. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world. What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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
Cheap grace is the idea that “grace” did it all for me, so I do not need to change my lifestyle. The believer who accepts the idea of “cheap grace” thinks he can continue to live like the rest of the world. Instead of following Christ in a radical way, the Christian lost in cheap grace thinks he can simply enjoy the consolations of his grace. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Do not worry! Earthly goods deceive the human heart into believing that they give it security and freedom from worry. But in truth, they are what cause anxiety. The heart which clings to goods receives with them the choking burden of worry. Worry collects treasures, and treasures produce more worries. We desire to secure our lives with earthly goods; we want our worrying to make us worry-free, but the truth is the opposite. The chains which bind us to earthly goods, the clutches which hold the goods tight, are themselves worries. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The followers of Christ have been called to peace… And they must not only have peace but make it. And to that end they renounce all violence and tumult. In the cause of Christ nothing is to be gained by such methods… His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. They renounce hatred and wrong. In so doing they overcome evil with good and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the division which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace. The disciples will be sorely tempted to desert their Lord. But the end is also near, and they must hold on and persevere until it comes. Only he will be blessed who remains loyal to Jesus and his word until the end. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is only because he became like us that we can become like him. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Where God tears great gaps, we should not try to fill them with human words. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Nothing that we despise in other men is inherently absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don’t do, and more in light of what they suffer. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Not hero worship, but intimacy with Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Time is the most valuable thing that we have, because it is the most irrevocable. – 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
I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Absolute seriousness is never without a dash of humor. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Church is the Church only when it exists for others…not dominating but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How would you expect to find community while you intentionally withdraw from it at some point? The disobedient cannot believe; only the obedient believe. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. – 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
The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
So many people come to church with a genuine desire to hear what we have to say, yet they are always going back home with the uncomfortable feeling that we are making it too difficult for them to come to Jesus. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Being free means “”being free for the other,”” because the other has bound me to him. Only in relationship with the other am I free” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If my sinfulness appears to me in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The early morning belongs to the Church of the risen Christ. At the break of light, it remembers the morning on which death and sin lay prostrate in defeat and new life and salvation were given to mankind – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Grace at a low cost, is in the last resort simply a new law, which brings neither help nor freedom. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
One act of obedience is worth a hundred sermons. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Not everyone can wait neither the sated nor the satisfied nor those without respect can wait. The only ones who can wait are people who carry restlessness around with them. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life? – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes – and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Any honors that come our way are only stolen from him to whom alone they really belong, the Lord who sent us. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The fact that we do not speak it but sing it only expresses the fact that our spoken words are inadequate to express what we want to say, that the burden of our song goes far beyond all human words. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If you believe, take the first step, it leads to Jesus Christ. If you don’t believe, take the first step all the same, for you are bidden to take it. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Strict exercise of self-control is an essential feature of the Christian’s life. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sanctification means that the Christians have been judged already, and that they are being preserved until the coming of Christ and are ever advancing towards it. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Every wedding must be an occasion of joy that human beings can do such great things, that they have been given such immense freedom and power to take the helm in their life’s journey… – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Neighborliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The way to misuse our possessions is to use them as an insurance against the morrow. Anxiety is always directed to the morrow, whereas goods are in the strictest sense meant to be used only for to-day. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The wars of Israel were the only ‘holy wars’ in history… there can be no more wars of faith. The only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Love, in the sense of spontaneous, unreflective action, spells the death of the old man. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The world exercises dominion by force and Christ and Christians conquer by service. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise Godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer it; he must let the evil person fall into Jesus’ hands. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A love that left people alone in their guilt would not have real people as its object. So, in vicarious responsibility for people, and in His love for real human beings, Jesus becomes the one burdened by guilt. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there he still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Nothing can be known either of God or man until God has become man in Jesus Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Your life as a Christian should make non believers question their disbelief in God. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The task of pastoral ministry, above all else, is to arrange contingencies for an encounter with the divine. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to each of us. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The truth of the matter is that the whole world has already been turned upside down by the work of Jesus Christ – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
[Christ] is the Mediator, not only between God and man, but between man and man, between man and reality. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus is the only significance. Beside Jesus nothing has any significance. He alone matters. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There can be no real attachment to the given creation, no genuine responsibility in the world, unless we recognize the breach which already separates us from it. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Not until one person desires to keep his own bread for himself does hunger ensue. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Through our daily meals He is calling us to rejoice, to keep holiday in the midst of our working day. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
May God in his mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may he lead us to himself. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do. To that there is only one answer. You can only know and think about it by actually doing it. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passiva, suffering because we have to suffer. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
My past life is abundantly full of God’s mercy, and, above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There is a wrong way of staying in the world and a wrong way of fleeing from it. In both cases we are fashioning ourselves according to the world. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In short, it is much easier to see a thing through from the point of view of abstract principle than from that of concrete responsibility. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on the contrary, its validation. One does not use canons to shoot sparrows. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The brother is a burden to the Christian, precisely because he is a Christian. For the pagan the other person never becomes a burden at all. He simply sidesteps every burden that others may impose upon him. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Incarnation is the ultimate reason why the service of God cannot be divorced from the service of man. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As Christians, we needn’t be at all ashamed of some impatience, longing, opposition to what is unnatural, and our full share of desire for freedom, earthly happiness, and opportunity for effective work. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The task is not to turn the world upside down but in a given place to do what, from the perspective of reality, is necessary objectively and to really carry it out. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Advent creates people, new people. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A false faith is capable of terrible and monstrous things. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This is the end. For me the beginning of life. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How impossible, how utterly absurd it would be for the disciples–these disciples, such men as these! – to try and become the light of the world! No, they are already the light, and the call has made them so. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
[…]he who can speak out of the abundance of God’s Word, the wealth of directions, admonitions, and consolations of the Scriptures, will be able through God’s Word to drive out demons and help his brother. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Nevertheless, it is the free grace of the resurrected One that now also goes after the individual, overcomes the doubter, and creates in him the Easter faith. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
