Quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer--hung by the Nazis on April 9, 1945

We watched a documentary about Deitrich Bonhoeffer today.  I had no idea Hitler demanded allegiance from the churches and changed them totally.  There are several movies about Bonhoeffer.  I can't believe I had never heard about him.    He was hung by the Nazis just days before the liberation by the Yanks of the prisoners in German prisons.

These are some of his many quotes that have lived on after him.  There are also books of his letters and poems.

 "0nly he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.”

“Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.”

 “First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.”

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”

“The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to h...”

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”

"One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.”

“If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.”

 "The morning prayer determines the day."

"Prayer is not just about opening your heart. It means rather to find the way to God and talk to him, if your heart is full or empty."

 "But the Christian also knows that he not only cannot and dare not be anxious, but there is no need for him to be so."

"Praying certainly does not mean simply pouring out one’s heart. It means, rather, finding the way to and speaking with God, whether the heart is full or empty. No one can do that on one’s own. For that one needs Jesus Christ."

The prison doc who attended his execution wrote, “I was most deeply moved by the way this extraordinary, lovable man prayed, so resigned and so certain that God heard his prayer.”