Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Reason tends to check selfish impulses and to grant the satisfaction of legitimate impulses in others. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life. — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
“Rationality belongs to the cool observer, but because of the stupidity of the average man, he follows not reason, but faith, and… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Rationalism belongs to the cool observer. But because of the stupidity of the average person, they follow not reason, but faith. This… — 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,… — 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… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
Now we're living in a nuclear age, and the science that was supposed to be automatically for human welfare has become a… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
The scientific observer of the realm of nature is in a sense naturally and inevitably disinterested. At least, nothing in the natural… — 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… — Reinhold Niebuhr Copy Share Image
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
