That is the truth about man - that he has a curious kind of dignity, but also a curious kind of misery,… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
All this talk about atheistic materialism and God-fearing American I think is beside the point; it's a rather vapid form of religion. — 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 think that the Christian faith is right as against simple forms of secularism. That it believes that there is in man… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Marxism was the social creed and the social cry of those classes who knew by their miseries that the creed of the… — 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
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 Image
Perhapsthemost sublimeinsights oftheJewishprophets and the Christian gospel is the knowledge that since perfection is love, the apprehension of perfection is at once the means of seeing one's imperfections and the consoling assurance of grace which makes this realization bearable. This ultimate paradox of high religion is not an invention of theologians or priests. It is constantly validated by the most… — 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 Image
Liberalism makes this mistake in regard to private property and Marxism makes it in regard to socialized property... The Marxist illusion is partly derived from a romantic conception of human nature... It assumes that the socialization of property will eliminate human egotism... The development of a managerial class in Russia, combing economic with political power, is an historic refutation of… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share
Human beings are endowed by nature with both selfish and unselfish impulses. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Man is always worse than most people suspect, but also generally better than most people dream. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
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 Image
