History is a realm in which human freedom and natural necessity are curiously intermingled.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRThe measure of our rationality determines the degree of vividness with which we appreciate the needs of other life, the extent to which we become conscious of the real character of our own motives and impulses.
More Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes
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We have to risk a nuclear war in order to escape capitulation to Communism. For all I know, we may stumble into this terrible war.
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We have previously suggested that philanthropy combines genuine pity with the display of power and that the latter element explains why the powerful are more inclined to be generous than to grant social justice.
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Man is endowed by nature with organic relations to his fellow men; and natural impulse prompts him to consider the needs of others even when they compete with his own.
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Whether the man is an atheist or a Christian, I would judge him by his fruits, and I have therefore many agnostic friends.
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I know that the Communists are atheistic and godless, but I don’t think that that’s what’s primarily the matter with them. What’s primarily the matter with them is that they worship a false god.
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All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.
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You can’t say that religion or irreligion will give us a particular answer to the nuclear dilemma.
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Great talents have some admirers, but few friends.
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The cross symbolizes a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one.
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Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.
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If you equate God’s judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.
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The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.
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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.
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The separation of church and state is necessary partly because if religion is good then the state shouldn’t interfere with the religious vision or with the religious prophet.
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Cheese, wine, and a friend must be old to be good.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR