Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes - Page 3

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• 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.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "How Obama's favorite theologian shaped his first year in office" by John Blake, www.cnn.com. February 5, 2010.

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• As racial, economic and national groups, they take for themselves, whatever their power can command.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Groups, Economic, Command

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2013). “Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics”, p.9, Westminster John Knox Press

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• Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Love, Power, Goodness

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• 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.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Life, Finals, Form

  "The Irony of American History". Book by Reinhold Niebuhr, 1952.

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

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Doe, Judgment, Prophet

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• The measure of our rationality determines the degree of vividness with which we appreciate the needs of other life, the extent to which we become conscious of the real character of our own motives and impulses, the ability to harmonize conflicting impulses in our own life and in society, and the capacity to choose adequate means for approved ends.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Real, Character, Mean

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.204, Library of America

  21 Copy quote

• Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Men, Perfection, Sin

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• It is the evil in man that makes democracy necessary, and man's belief in justice that makes democracy possible.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Men, Evil, Justice

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• The Communists do have a god, the Dialectic of History, which guarantees everything that they're going to do and guarantees them victory; that's why they're fanatic.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Victory, Guarantees, Communist

  Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

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• The intimate relation between humor and faith is derived from the fact that both deal with the incongruities of our existence. Laughter is our reaction to immediate incongruities and those which do not affect us essentially. Faith is the only possible response to the ultimate incongruities of existence, which threaten the very meaning of our life.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Laughter, Facts, Intimate

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• Religion, declares the modern man, is consciousness of our highest social values. Nothing could be further from the truth. True religion is a profound uneasiness about our highest social values.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Men, Social Values, Profound

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• One of the fundamental points about religious humility is you say you don't know about the ultimate judgment. It's beyond your judgment. And if you equate God's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Religious, Humility, Fundamentals

  ABC TV Interview with Mike Wallace, www.hrc.utexas.edu. April 27, 1958.

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• All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Sin, Intention, Humans

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.45, Library of America

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• The final test of religious faith... is whether it will enable men to endure insecurity without complacency or despair, whether it can so interpret the ancient verities that they will not become mere escape hatches from responsibilities but instruments of insights into what civilization means.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Religious, Mean, Responsibility

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• Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Democracy, Problem, Findings

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• While it is possible for intelligence to increase the range of benevolent impulse, and thus prompt a human being to consider the needs and rights of other than those to whom he is bound by organic and physical relationship, there are definite limits in the capacity of ordinary mortals which makes it impossible for them to grant to others what they claim for themselves.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Rights, Ordinary, Needs

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.182, Library of America

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• There is no social evil, no form of injustice whether of the feudal or the capitalist order which has not been sanctified in some way or other by religious sentiment and thereby rendered more impervious to change.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Religious, Order, Evil

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• I don't know whether any religious leader would say that we must ultimately win, because we're on God's side. If they do say that, it's bad religion.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Religious, Winning, Leader

  Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

  7 Copy quote

• Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Drawing, Battle, Life Is

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.138, Library of America

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• I wouldn't judge a man by the presuppositions of his life, but only by the fruits of his life. And the fruits - the relevant fruits - are, I'd say, a sense of charity, a sense of proportion, a sense of justice.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Men, Justice, Judging

  Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

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• When a church reaches up beyond its group and tries to enforce its standards upon a society that doesn't accept these standards, and perhaps for good reason, perhaps for bad reason, but anyway this is the problem we face in pluralistic society, that not necessarily every standard that every church tries to enforce upon the society is from the society's standpoint a good standard.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Church, Trying, Groups

  Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

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• We Protestants ought to humbly confess that the theater and the sports have done more for race amity, for race understanding than, on the whole, the Protestant Church in certain type, in certain parts of the nation.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Sports, Race, Understanding

  Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

  14 Copy quote

• Man is both strong and weak, both free and bound, both blind and far-seeing. He stands at the juncture of nature and spirit; and is involved in both freedom and necessity.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Strong, Men, Spirit

  Reinhold Niebuhr (1996). “The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation : Human Nature”, p.181, Westminster John Knox Press

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• Great talents have some admirers, but few friends.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Few Friends, Talent, Admirer

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• If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Moral, Ifs

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