Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs.
(1892 - 1971)
|
|
|
|
All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.
|
|
|
|
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
|
|
|
|
Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.
|
|
|
|
Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.
|
|
|
|
Faith is the final triumph over incongruity, the final assertion of the meaningfulness of existence.
|
|
|
|
Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
[Change]
|
|
|
|
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
[Acceptance]
|
|
|
|
Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.
|
|
|
|
I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.
|
|
|
|
I'm not afraid of too many things, and I got that invincible kind of attitude from my father.
[Courage]
|
|
|
|
If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God.
|
|
|
|
If we survive danger, it steels our courage more than anything else.
|
|
|
|
Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.
[Life]
|
|
|
|
Man's capacity for evil makes democracy necessary and man's capacity for good makes democracy possible.
|
|
|
|
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
|
|
|
|
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
|
|
|
|
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.
[Accomplished]
|
|
|
|
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
|
|
|
|
|