Quote

We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Age: 39 †
Born: 1906
Born: February 4
Died: 1945
Died: April 8
Pastor
Philosopher
Poet
Resistance Fighter
Theologian
Breslau
Bonhoeffer
Light
Must
Omit
People
Empathy
Suffer
Regard
Suffering
Less
Learn

More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from a Christian community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ in the poor brother Christ is knocking at the door.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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He who loves community destroys community he who loves the brethren builds community.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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When our will wholeheartedly enters into the prayer of Christ, then we pray correctly.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Thinking in terms of two realms understands the paired concepts worldy-Christia n, natural-superna tural, profane-sacred, rational-revela tions, as ultimate static opposites...and fails to recognize the original unity of these opposites in the Christ-reality.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The biggest mistake you can make in your life is to be always afraid of making a mistake.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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When a man really gives up trying to make something out of himself - a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a so-called clerical somebody), a righteous or unrighteous man,...and throws himself into the arms of God...then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, that is metanoia and it is thus that he becomes a man and Christian.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The Church is her true self only when she exists for humanity. As a fresh start, she should give away all her endowments to the poor and needy. The clergy should live solely on the freewill offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Telling the truth ... is not solely a matter of moral character it is also a matter of correct appreciation of real situations and of serious reflection upon them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Wherever there are sinners, the weak, the sorrowful, the poor in the world, that is where God goes.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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God turns toward the very places from which humans turn away.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray. The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The gift of Christ is not the Christian religion, but the grace and love of God which culminate in the cross.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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A father acts on behalf of his children by working, providing, intervening, struggling, and suffering for them. In so doing, he really stands in their place. He is not an isolated individual, but incorporates the selves of several people in his own self.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Politics are not the task of a Christian.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The person who’s in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The Church knows nothing of a sacredness of war. The Church which prays'Our Father'asks God only for peace.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straghtforward men.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer