Justin Taylor has a useful post entitled 6 Quotes that Luther Didn’t Actually Say. After the jump, see what they are. (To be fair, some of them are close to what he said, as loose translations or summaries. And what he attributes to me on the “wise Turk” quote actually comes from the regular commenter here Carl Vehse, who has done quite a bit of work in tracing such apocryphal quotations.)
You’ll have to go to the original post to read the discussions about each of these quotations.
Alleged Luther quote #1:
If I believed the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today.
Alleged Luther quote #2:
The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays—not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors.
The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.
Alleged Luther quote #3:
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
Alleged Luther quote #4:
I’d rather be ruled by a wise Turk than by a foolish Christian.
Alleged Luther quote #5:
Justification is the article by which the church stands and falls.
Alleged Quote #6
Here I stand; I can do no other.
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