If the author be one of
high rank, rest assured he is not really of noble origin, but a
surreptitious intruder into the family. What defects women have, we
must check them for in private, gently by word of mouth; for woman is
a frail vessel." The doctor then turned round and said, "Let us talk
of something else."

There was at Frankfort-on-the-Oder a schoolmaster, a pious and learned
man, whose heart was fervently inclined to theology, and who had
preached several times with great applause. He was called to the
dignity of deacon; but his wife, a violent, fierce woman, would not
consent to his accepting the charge, saying she would not be the wife
of a minister.

It became a question, what was the poor man to do? which was he to
renounce, his preacher-ship or his wife? Luther at first said
jocosely, "Oh, if he has married, as you tell me, a widow, he must
needs obey her." But after a while he resumed severely: "The wife is
bound to follow her husband, not the husband his wife. This must be an
ill woman, nay, the devil incarnate, to be ashamed of a charge with
which our Lord and his apostles were invested. If she were my wife, I
should shortly say to her, 'Wilt thou follow me, aye or no? Reply
forthwith'; and if she replied, 'No,' I would leave her, and take
another wife."

I have no pleasure in any man who despises music. It is no invention
of ours: it is the gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan
hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us.

The strength and glory of a town does not depend on its wealth, its
walls, its great mansions, its powerful armaments; but on the number
of its learned, serious, kind, and well-educated citizens.

Greek and Latin are the scabbard which holds the sword of the Spirit,
the cases which enclose the precious jewels, the vessels which contain
the old wine, the baskets which carry the loaves and fishes for the
feeding of the multitude.

Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom--only a few fragments of
the boundless heights, breadths, and depths of truth--have I been able
to gather.

My own writings are like a wild forest, compared with the gentle,
limpid fluency of his [Brenz's] language. If small things dare be
compared with great, my words are like the Spirit of Elijah--a great
and strong wind, rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the
rocks; and his is the still small voice. But yet God uses also coarse
wedges for splitting coarse blocks; an