The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
It is the evil in man that makes democracy necessary, and man's belief in justice that makes democracy possible. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
A republic properly understood is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
“It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
We have previously suggested that philanthropy combines genuine pity with the display of power and that the latter element explains why the… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
I wouldn't judge a man by the presuppositions of his life, but only by the fruits of his life. And the fruits… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
The fence and the boundary line are the symbols of the spirit of justice. They set the limits upon each man's interest… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
There is no social evil, no form of injustice whether of the feudal or the capitalist order which has not been sanctified… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
I've long ago felt, I have many Jewish friends and I very I think creative Jewish friends, and I've long felt that… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
“The consistent optimism of our liberal culture has prevented modern democratic societies both from gauging the perils of freedom accurately and from… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
My personal attitude toward atheists is the same attitude that I have toward Christians, and would be governed by a very orthodox… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can only be sustained by a spirit of… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization. We must exercise our power. But we ought… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
The stupidity of the average man will permit the oligarch, whether economic or political, to hide his real purposes from the scrutiny… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Now the ordinary Protestant, Jew or Secularist has a stereotype about Catholicism. It consists of Spanish Catholicism, Latin-American Catholicism and, let us… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
“The moral attitudes of dominant and privileged groups are characterised by universal selfdeception and hypocrisy. The unconscious and conscious identification of their… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
There are evidently limits to the achievements of science; and there are irresolvable contradictions both between prosperity and virtue, and between happiness and ''the… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
Perhapsthemost sublimeinsights oftheJewishprophets and the Christian gospel is the knowledge that since perfection is love, the apprehension of perfection is at once the means… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
The essence of man is his freedom. Sin is committed in that freedom. Sin can therefore not be attributed to a defect in his… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
Liberalism makes this mistake in regard to private property and Marxism makes it in regard to socialized property... The Marxist illusion is partly derived… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
Human beings are endowed by nature with both selfish and unselfish impulses. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
Freedom is necessary for two reasons. It's necessary for the individual, because the individual, no matter how good the society is, every individual has… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
The pretensions of final truth are always partlyan effort to obscure a darkly felt consciousness of the limits of human knowledge. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
Man is always worse than most people suspect, but also generally better than most people dream. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
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… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
...(I)ndividual selfhood is expressed in the self's capacity for self-transcendence and not in its rational capacity for conceptual and analytic procedures. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
