Clergy

"You suppose that Christianity is oppressed in Germany and that there is a rule by force and secret trial. Though this is not the case, the German State cannot be expected to tolerate incessant attacks, open or veiled, by ministers of the Christian faith upon its very foundations. There are recalcitrant pastors who seem to be unaware of the fact that they would have been shot, hanged or burned long ago if it had not been for the gigantic and successful struggle of Adolf Hitler to safeguard civilization in this country against the horrors of Communism. Therefore by attacking National Socialism, they are striking at themselves."

"I am now convinced that the Reformation of the church will come from the east. In the west there is no spiritual life. (I'm speaking of the Protestant church and not the Roman Catholic church.) We have civilisation and we try to keep up culture, but we have no spiritual life. The east has a spiritual life. They know that colour influences the spirit more than black lines. In Russia there is still the notion that art is nearer religion than thinking in lines and logic. All abstract rationalising needs to be filled out with sensual thinking and feelings. In Russia there is still a strong impression of colour."

"One thing is clear, the president of North Vietnam is not a fanatic. He is a very strong and determined man, but capable of listening, something that is very rare in a person of his position."

"I began my political responsibility as an ultra-conservative. I wanted the Kaiser to come back; and now I am a revolutionary. I really mean that. If I live to be a hundred I shall maybe be an anarchist, for an anarchist wants to do without all government."

"For politicians truth and falsehood are unimportant. So I never could become a politician — not even a church politician."

"We had been frightened of atomic weapons since 1945. In those days I became convinced — and remain convinced now — that, after Hitler, Truman was the greatest murderer in the world."

"I have never concealed the fact and said it before the court in 1938 that I came from an anti-Semitic past and tradition... I ask only that you look at my life historically and take it as history. I believe that from 1933 I truly represented the Lutheran-Christian outlook on the Jewish question — as I revealed before the court — but that I returned home after eight years' imprisonment as a completely different person."

"The renunciation of war as expressed in the Japanese Constitution has given a first ray of hope to a world in darkness and despair, and men today cling to this hope passionately. Can we really do something about it or are we to stand aside as idle onlookers, unable to contribute for better or for worse?"

"In Erlangen, for instance, in January 1946 he spoke of meeting a German Jew who had lost everything — parents, brothers, and sisters too. 'I could not help myself', said Niemöller, 'I had to tell him, "Dear brother, fellow man, Jew, before you say anything, I say to you: I acknowledge my guilt and beg you to forgive me and my people for this sin."' Niemöller's stance was by no means entirely welcome to the 1,200 students to whom he was preaching. They shouted and jeered as he preached that Germany must accept responsibility for the five or six million murdered Jews. Students in Marburg and Göttingen similarly heckled him. But Niemöller insisted that "We must openly declare that we are not innocent of the Nazi murders, of the murder of German communists, Poles, Jews, and the people in German-occupied countries. No doubt others made mistakes too, but the wave of crime started here and here it reached its highest peak. The guilt exists, there is no doubt about that — even if there were no other guilt than that of the six million clay urns containing the ashes of incinerated Jews from all over Europe. And this guilt lies heavily upon the German people and the German name, even upon Christendom. For in our world and in our name have these things been done.""

"Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist. Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat. Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich nicht protestiert; ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter. Als sie die Juden holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Jude. Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte."

"No honest man or woman in Germany feels responsible for these things. Good Germans took Nazism as a new religion. These people are shocked by the revelations which have shown that Nazism was not idealism, but a means to the performance of criminal acts... In war a German feels bound to join the ranks without question. Three of my sons were called up. I could not hold back. I wrote from the concentration camp to Admiral Raeder, C. in C. of the Navy, asking to be allowed to return to the submarine service or to do any other service in the Navy. I heard nothing for several months, and then a reply came, not from Raeder but from Keitel, head of the Wehrmacht. He thanked me, but regretted I could not be employed on active service."

"We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man."

"Confiar de los amigos hoy como enemigos mañana."

"La virtud es cosa de veras, todo lo demás de burlas. La capacidad y grandeza se ha de medir por la virtud, no por la fortuna. Ella sola se basta a sí misma. Vivo el hombre, le haze amable; y muerto, memorable."

"Única regla de agradar: coger el apetito picado con el hambre con que quedó."

"No vaya por generalidades en el vivir, si ya no fuere en favor de la virtud, ni intime leyes precisas al querer, que avrá de bever mañana del agua que desprecia hoi."

"Más preciosa es la libertad que la dádiva, porque se pierde."

"Adelántase más la imaginación que la vista, y el engaño, que entra de ordinario por el oído, viene a salir por los ojos."

"Muchas cosas de gusto no se han de poseer en propiedad. … Gózanse las cosas ajenas con doblada fruición, esto es, sin el riesgo del daño y con el gusto de la novedad."

"Otros todos son ajenos, que la necedad siempre va por demasías, y aquí infeliz: no tienen día, ni aun hora suya, con tal exceso de ajenos, que alguno fue llamado “el de todos”. Aun en el entendimiento, que para todos saben y para sí ignoran."

"Más vale el buen ocio que el negocio."

"No es favor del Príncipe, sino pecho, el comunicarlo. Quiebran muchos el espejo porque les acuerda la fealdad. No puede ver al que le pudo ver."

"Cásanse algunos con la primera información, de suerte que las demás son concubinas, y como se adelanta siempre la mentira, no queda lugar después para la verdad."

"Unos mueren porque sienten y otros viven porque no sienten. Y assí, unos son necios porque no mueren de sentimiento, y otros lo son porque mueren de él."

"Como los ignorantes no se conocen, tampoco buscan lo que les falta. Serían sabios algunos si no creyessen que lo son."

"El que no se hallare con ánimo de sufrir apele al retiro de sí mismo, si es que aun a sí mismo se ha de poder tolerar."

"Saberlos conservar es más que el hazerlos amigos."

"Más vale ser engañado en el precio que en la mercadería."

"Quanto que el no creer es indicio del mentir; porque el mentiroso tiene dos males, que ni cree ni es creído."

"La quexa siempre trae descrédito. Más sirve de exemplar de atrevimiento a la passión que de consuelo a la compassión. Abre el passo a quien la oye para lo mismo, y es la noticia del agravio del primero disculpa del segundo. Dan pie algunos con sus quexas de las ofensiones passadas a las venideras."

"La galantería y la honra tienen esta ventaja, que se quedan: aquélla en quien la usa, ésta en quien la haze."

"Todos los que hazen del hazendado en el empleo dan indicio de que no lo merecían."

"Fabricáronles a muchos su grandeza sus malévolos. Más fiera es la lisonja que el odio, pues remedia éste eficazmente las tachas que aquélla disimula."

"Harto presto, si bien."

"La presteza es madre de la dicha."

"El encarecer es ramo de mentir."

"Unos principios de crédito sirven de despertar la curiosidad, no de empeñar el objecto. Mejor sale quando la realidad excede al concepto y es más de lo que se creyó. Faltará esta regla en lo malo, pues le ayuda la mesma exageración; desmiéntela con aplauso, y aun llega a parecer tolerable lo que se temió extremo de ruin."

"Pero el que no pudiere alcançar a tener la sabiduría en servidumbre, lógrela en familiaridad."

"Que el aviso haga antes viso de recuerdo de lo que olvidava que de luz de lo que no alcançó."

"Thus he liv'd, and thus he dy'd like a Saint, unspotted of the World, full of Alms-deeds, full of Humility, and all the examples of vertuous life."

"George Herbert, who was the Author of the Temple or Sacred Poems and Ejaculations. (A Book, in which by declaring his own spiritual Conflicts he hath Comforted and raised many a dejected and discomposed Soul, and charmed them into sweet and quiet thoughts: A Book, by the frequent reading whereof, and the assistance of that Spirit that seemed to inspire the Author, the Reader may attain habits of Peace and Piety, and all the gifts of the Holy Ghost and Heaven: and may by still reading, still keep those sacred fires burning upon the Altar of so pure an heart, as shall free it from the anxieties of this world, and keep it fixt upon things that are above)."

"The first, that with any effectual success attempted a diversion of this foul and overflowing stream, was the blessed man, Mr. George Herbert, whose holy life and verse gained many pious converts, of whom I am the least; and gave the first check to a most flourishing and admired wit of his time."

"I must confess, after all that, next to Scripture Poems, there are none so savoury to me, as Mr. George Herbert’s, and Mr. George Sandys’s. I know that Cooly and others far excel Herbert in Wit and accurate composure. But (as Seneca takes with me above all his Contemporaries, because he speaketh Things by words, feelingly and seriously, like a man that is past jest, so) Herbert speaks to God like one that really believeth a God, and where business in the world is most with God. Heart-work and Heaven-work make up his Books."

"A dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two."

"The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken."

"The lion is not so fierce as they paint him."

"To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure."

"It is a poor sport that is not worth the candle."

"No sooner is a temple built to God, but the Devil builds a chapel hard by."

"After death the doctor."