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 (1740–1815), Dichter

Topics: Doubt & Hard Questions, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit

Matthias Claudius

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.

All quotes by Matthias Claudius (111)

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The strongest faith isn't a faith that never doubts. Rather, it's a faith that grows through doubts.
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I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because, by it, I see everything else.
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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

The grip of our faith by which we hold on to the Lord may loosen. But the One in whom we believe holds us with his grip.
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A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
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Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.
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Faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean. If it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will.
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Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
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