Quotes by Matthias Claudius
Matthias Claudius (1740–1815) — Dichter · Lutherisch · Deutschland
Matthias Claudius (1740–1815) war ein deutscher Dichter, Journalist und Redakteur, der vor allem in Wandsbek bei Hamburg wirkte. Bekannt durch Werke wie das „Abendlied“ („Der Mond ist aufgegangen“) und die Zeitung „Der Wandsbecker Bote“, vertrat er eine schlichte, biblisch verwurzelte Frömmigkeit, die von zeitgenössischen Aufklärern wie Goethe verspottet wurde. Heutigen Bibellesern vermitteln seine Verse ein unprätentiöses Gottvertrauen sowie die Mahnung zu menschlicher Demut und Schöpfungsverbundenheit.
Era: Revival & the 19th Century
Recurring topics: God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Faith & Trust, Joy & Gratitude, Humility & Pride, Meaning & Identity, Eternity & Hope Beyond Death, The Bible & the Word of God, Suffering & the Question of God
Quotes by Matthias Claudius
Do you see the moon standing there? It's only half visible, and yet it's round and lovely! So it is with many things that we lightly laugh about, because our eyes cannot see them.
Matthias Claudius
He, he makes the sun rise, he sets the moon's course, he lets the winds blow, he opens up the sky. He grants us cattle and joy, he makes us fresh and ruddy, he gives the cows their pasture and our children bread.
Matthias Claudius
We need someone to lift us and hold us because we live, and to lay a hand under our head when we must die; and Christ can do this abundantly, according to what is written of him.
Matthias Claudius
God let us behold your salvation, trust in nothing transient, not rejoice in vanity! Let us become simple, and before you here on earth be pious and joyful like children!
Matthias Claudius
Often I close the Bible and fold my hands: that people are held so high and precious before God!
Matthias Claudius
We plough and we scatter the seed upon the land; yet growth and thriving lie in heaven's hand.
Matthias Claudius
Man lives and endures but a little while; and all the world with its splendor passes away. There is only One who is eternal in every place, and we are in his hands.
Matthias Claudius
Man must have something firm to anchor himself to, something that does not depend on him, but on which he depends.
Matthias Claudius
So lie down now, brothers, in God's name; the evening breeze is cold. Spare us, God, from punishment, and let us sleep in peace! And our sick neighbor too.
Matthias Claudius
Should I not sing to my God? Should I not be grateful to him? For I see in all things how good he is to me. Nothing is there but pure love that stirs his faithful heart; all things last their time; God's love forever!
Matthias Claudius
Precisely where philosophy fails and reason must scratch behind its ears, where one hears a rushing sound but does not know where it comes from or where it goes, precisely there I suspect the finger of God.
Matthias Claudius
Do the good that lies before you, and do not worry about what will come of it.
Matthias Claudius
Surely spring teaches us especially of God and his goodness, for what moves the heart so must come from some heart.
Matthias Claudius
I thank God and rejoice like a child over a Christmas gift, that I am, I am! And that I have you, beautiful human face!
Matthias Claudius
God's ways are dark, but the darkness lies only in our eyes, not on his paths.
Matthias Claudius
God, give me each day only as much as I need for life. He gives it to the sparrow on the roof: how should he not give it to me!
Matthias Claudius
The grave is empty, the grave is empty! The hero has risen! Life is the lord of death, the world is saved!
Matthias Claudius
The inward, secret leaning, surging, and longing of the heart—that, in my view, is the main thing in prayer.
Matthias Claudius
When we are told by a good hand that not a hair falls from our head without the Father's will, we can trust firmly, even where we do not understand him and seem to lose him along his ways.
Matthias Claudius
It is easy to despise; and to understand is far better.
Matthias Claudius
If we humans have an innate longing for immortality, then it is clear that, in our present state, we are not where we ought to be. We flounder like fish on dry land, and there must be an ocean somewhere for us.
Matthias Claudius
Ah, everything, everything in the world is dust, soon ground to nothing; what was high and glorious crumbles, and nothing endures but love.
Matthias Claudius
In man are the ruins of a great and holy being; and there is a happiness for him that rust and moths cannot devour, and that the world with all its splendor cannot give and with all its defiance cannot take away.
Matthias Claudius
Every human being is an Abraham and has a promised land that has been promised to him.
Matthias Claudius
There are thoughts and feelings that do not grow on rich soil.
Matthias Claudius
Take care of your body, but not as though it were your soul.
Matthias Claudius
There are friendships that are decided in heaven and carried out on earth.
Matthias Claudius
What is near and what is far, from God all things come! The blade of straw and the stars, the sparrow and the sea.
Matthias Claudius
And all the money and all the goods provide indeed for many things; but health, sleep, and good spirits it cannot make.
Matthias Claudius
Through death man loses only what he did not have, and what he has remains his forever.
Matthias Claudius
Man has a spirit within him that this world does not satisfy, that chews over the thorns and thistles along the way with grief and reluctance, and longs for its true home.
Matthias Claudius
A person who has true fear of God in his heart is like the sun, which shines and warms even when it does not speak.
Matthias Claudius
The words of Christ are a spring that never runs dry. As one draws from it, it fills again; and each meaning that follows is always greater and more glorious than the one before.
Matthias Claudius
We are not great, and our good fortune is that we can believe in something greater and better.
Matthias Claudius
Where Christ is, there is the promised land.
Matthias Claudius
Man does not live by bread alone, that scholars dish out, but he hungers for something else and better, for a word that comes through the mouth of God.
Matthias Claudius
Every creature carries a trace of God within itself.
Matthias Claudius
I thank God with strings that I never became king; I would have been flattered much and might have been ruined.
Matthias Claudius
People wear chains and are slaves; but they were not born to be so, and have not lost the hope of becoming free again.
Matthias Claudius
Before God, all is divine, not according to rank or dignity.
Matthias Claudius
111 quotes in total — browse the collection.
Sources: literaturkritik.de, enotes.com, journalistikon.de, nordkirche.de
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