All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.
Reinhold Niebuhr
2
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.
Reinhold Niebuhr
3
Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.
Reinhold Niebuhr
4
Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.
Reinhold Niebuhr
5
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.
Reinhold Niebuhr
6
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
7
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.
Reinhold Niebuhr
8
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that can be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.
Reinhold Niebuhr
9
Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.
Reinhold Niebuhr
10
If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God.
Reinhold Niebuhr
11
If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.
Reinhold Niebuhr
12
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
Reinhold Niebuhr
13
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
Reinhold Niebuhr
14
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.
Reinhold Niebuhr
15
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
Reinhold Niebuhr
16
Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.
Reinhold Niebuhr
17
Our age knows nothing but reaction, and leaps from one extreme to another.
Reinhold Niebuhr
18
The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.
Reinhold Niebuhr
19
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.
Reinhold Niebuhr
20
There is no cure for the pride of a virtuous nation but pure religion.
Reinhold Niebuhr
