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At the end of a life spent in the pursuit of knowledge Faust has to confess: "I now see that we can nothing know." That is the answer to a sum, it is the outcome of a long experience. But as Kierkegaard observed, it is quite a different thing when a freshman comes up to the university and uses the same sentiment to justify his indolence. As the answer to a sum it is perfectly true, but as the initial data it is a piece of self-deception.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer Discipleship (1937)

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More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace.

Costly Grace (1937)

Civil courage, in fact, can grow only out of the free responsibility of free men.

Letters and Papers from Prison (1967)

The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts.

Letters and Papers from Prison (1967)

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Costly Grace (1937)

Before Jesus leads His disciples into suffering, humiliation, disgrace, and disdain, He summons them and shows Himself to them as the Lord in God's glory.

Meditations on the Cross (1996)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.