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

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Lie Love Truth Worst
In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Achievement Easy Gratitude Hard Help Important Life Rich
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

Freedom Hope Oneself Photograph Prison Wait
One act of obedience is worth a hundred sermons.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Act Worth
Neighbourliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Ourselves People Quality Simplicity
I wonder why it is that we find some days so much more oppressive than others, for no apparent reason. Is it growing pains – or spiritual trial? Once they’re over, the world looks quite a different place again.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Different Growth Myself Oppression Pain Place Quite Reason Spiritual World
Any honours that come our way are only stolen from him to whom alone they really belong, the Lord who sent us.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Alone Himself Ourselves
Love, in the sense of spontaneous, unreflective action, spells the death of the old man.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Action Death Love Man Old Reflection
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

Dare Man Mental Myself Presence Sick Sin
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

Alone Guilty Love People Reality Religious Responsibility
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

Comfortable Desire Difficult Feeling Home People
If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own?
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Appearance Myself Person Possible Recognition Serious Sin Worst
Discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Discipline God Man
The task of pastoral ministry, above all else, is to arrange contingencies for an encounter with the divine.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Divine Job
Grace at a low cost, is in the last resort simply a new law, which brings neither help nor freedom.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Freedom Grace Simplicity
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Gift Grace Man
Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Faith Greatness Learning Life Loyalty
There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Journey Travel
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

God Human Ideal Love Pain Reality World
The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Creation Destroy Dream Love Person
Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Darkness Eyes God Leaving Light Ourselves
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

Deal Gratitude Greatness Hard Life Ordinary Receive Rich
Time is the most valuable thing that we have, because it is the most irrevocable.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Important Philosophy Time Value Worth
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

Evil Hands Himself Suffering Worst
No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Enemy Greatness Love Ourselves Sacrifice
God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Emotional God Truth
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

Evil Grace Judgement Love Spiritual

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

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

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