The fanatic is dangerous.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRWhether the man is an atheist or a Christian, I would judge him by his fruits, and I have therefore many agnostic friends.
More Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes
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Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil people, but by good people who do not know themselves and who do not probe deeply.
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This insinuation of the interests of the self into even the most ideal enterprises and most universal objectives, envisaged in moments of highest rationality, makes hypocrisy an inevitable by product of all virtuous endeavor.
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Religion, declares the modern man, is consciousness of our highest social values. Nothing could be further from the truth. True religion is a profound uneasiness about our highest social values.
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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 hopes, fears, ambitions, creative urges, that transcend the purposes of his society.
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We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization.
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We judge the Russians because they’re living under despotism and we don’t like it, but we’ve gotten into a fix now where we’re living in a common predicament, and we ought to recognize this common predicament.
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The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.
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Every experience proves that the real problem of our existence lies in the fact that we ought to love one another, but do not.
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All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.
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A republic properly understood is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will.
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The prophet himself stands under the judgment which he preaches. If he does not know that, he is a false prophet.
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We misjudge anybody who’s different from us and the Jews diverge from our type, ethnically and religiously. That’s their chief offense, but there are particular causes.
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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 good life,” which had not been anticipated in our philosophy.
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All this talk about atheistic materialism and God-fearing American I think is beside the point; it’s a rather vapid form of religion.
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Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR