Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes - Page 2

Change what cannot be accepted and accept what cannot be changed.

Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.

[There is] an increasing tendency among modern men to imagine themselves ethical because they have delegated their vices to larger and larger groups.

Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can only be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice. Justice requires that we carefully weigh rights and privileges and assure that each member of a community receives his due share. Love does not weigh rights and privileges too carefully because it prompts each to bear the burden of the other.

The separation of church and state is necessary partly because if religion is good then the state shouldn't interfere with the religious vision or with the religious prophet. There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause. Then religion mustn't interfere with the state - so one of the basic Democratic principles as we know it in America is the separation of church and state.

The chief source of man's inhumanity to man seems to be the tribal limits of his sense of obligation to other men.

The cross symbolizes a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one.

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.

All men are naturally included to obscure the morally ambiguous element in their political cause by investing it with religious sanctity.

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.

Humour is, in fact, a prelude to faith; and laughter is the beginning of prayer … Laughter is swallowed up in prayer and humour is fulfilled by faith.

Whether the man is an atheist or a Christian, I would judge him by his fruits, and I have therefore many agnostic friends.

All men who live with any degree of serenity live by some assurance of grace.

The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.

Adam Smith's was a real universalism in intent. Laissez Faire was intended to establish a world community as well as a natural harmony of interests within each nation... But the "children of darkness" were able to make good use of his creed. A dogma which was intended to guarantee the economic freedom of the individual became the "ideology" of vast corporate structures of a later period of capitalism, used by them, and still used, to prevent a proper political control of their power.

The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.

If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.

Perhaps the most significant moral characteristic of a nation is its hypocrisy.

Cheese, wine, and a friend must be old to be good.

The history of mankind is a perennial tragedy; for the highest ideals which the individual may project are ideals which he can never realize in social and collective terms.

The will-to-live becomes the will-to-power.

We don't properly discriminate. We never discriminate properly when we're dealing with another group and one of the big problems about religion is that religious people don't know that they are probably as flagrant in these misjudgments as irreligious people.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our own standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.

The prophet himself stands under the judgment which he preaches. If he does not know that, he is a false prophet.

All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.