Democracy Quotes by Reinhold Niebuhr

9 Democracy quotes by Reinhold Niebuhr

All Democracy quotes Reinhold Niebuhr’s page

Reinhold Niebuhr’s nine brief reflections on democracy merge his theological insights with a realistic view of human nature and societal structures.

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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

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Human Beings are just good enough to make democracy possible...just bad enough to make it neccessary.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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A republic properly understood is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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For democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions for insoluble problems.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes…

Reinhold Niebuhr

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“We have, on the whole, more liberty and less equality than Russia has. Russia has less liberty and more equality. Whether democracy…

Reinhold Niebuhr

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“Rationality belongs to the cool observer, but because of the stupidity of the average man, he follows not reason, but faith, and…

Reinhold Niebuhr

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Human beings are endowed by nature with both selfish and unselfish impulses.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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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

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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

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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

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The pretensions of final truth are always partlyan effort to obscure a darkly felt consciousness of the limits of human knowledge.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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Man is always worse than most people suspect, but also generally better than most people dream.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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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…

Reinhold Niebuhr

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...(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

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The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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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

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