“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“It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive justice and should not be made into a bastion of conservatism, particularly a conservatism which defends unjust privileges.”
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses“Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses“Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.”
Reinhold Niebuhr“The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.”
Reinhold Niebuhr“The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.”
Reinhold Niebuhr“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“Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.”
Reinhold Niebuhr“If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.”
Reinhold Niebuhr“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.”
Reinhold Niebuhr“The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan value and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism.”
Reinhold Niebuhr