Quotes from Reinhold Niebuhr

The history of mankind is a perennial tragedy; for the highest ideals which the individual may project are ideals which he can never realize in social and collective terms.

Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.

Democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions for insoluble problems.

There is no cure for the pride of a virtuous nation but pure religion.

Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.

Our age knows nothing but reaction, and leaps from one extreme to another.

If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God.

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.

If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.

Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history therefore we must be saved by faith.

The prophet himself stands under the judgment which he preaches. If he does not know that, he is a false prophet.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone therefore we are saved by love.

Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice.

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime therefore we must be saved by hope.

A wise architect observed that you could break the laws of architectural art provided you had mastered them first. That would apply to religion as well as to art. Ignorance of the past does not guarantee freedom from its imperfections.

All you earnest young men out to save the world please, have a laugh.

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

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

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone therefore, we are saved by love.

The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan values and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism.

Tuhan, karuniailah saya ketabahan untuk menerima hal-hal yang tidak bisa saya ubah, Keberanian untuk mengubah hal-hal yang bisa saya ubah, Dan kebijaksanaan untuk membedakan keduanya.

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.

We have, on the whole, more liberty and less equality than Russia has. Russia has less liberty and more equality. Whether democracy should be defined primarily in terms of liberty or equality is a source of unending debate.

The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.