Faith & Spirit Quote by Martin Luther

The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery. Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them of clay, in the way Adam was fashioned; as I should have counseled him also, to let the sun remain always suspended over the earth, like a great lamp, maintaining perpetual light and heat. (Chapter/section often titled "Of Marriage and Celibacy" in later English translations (exact page varies by edition; e.g., p. 307 in the 1872 Bell & Daldy ed.)). Primary origin is Luther’s Tischreden (Table Talk), remarks recorded by associates and later compiled/edited by Johann Aurifaber; first printed in German at Eisleben in 1566. The exact English wording you quoted is from later English translations, not Luther’s own published prose. A widely-circulated English printing that matches the longer form above appears in 19th-century editions (often cited as p. 307), and the passage is also reproduced on sites that excerpt those translations. Project Gutenberg’s 1886 Cassell edition (based on Captain Henry Bell’s older English translation) provides a free, citable text witness and explicitly states the first publication year (1566) in its introduction. For a strict ‘first spoken’ date/location: it is not known precisely; Table Talk entries were noted over many years (commonly 1531–1546) and were not ‘spoken as a formal speech’ but recorded from conversation. If you need the earliest *printed* appearance of this specific wording, that would be in an early English Table Talk printing/translation (Captain Henry Bell tradition), but the *first publication of the content* is the 1566 German Tischreden.