Civilization depends upon the vigorous pursuit of the highest values by people who are intelligent enough to know that their values are qualified by their interests and corrupted by their prejudices.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRCivilization depends upon the vigorous pursuit of the highest values by people who are intelligent enough to know that their values are qualified by their interests and corrupted by their prejudices.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRIt is significant that it is as difficult to get charity out of piety as to get reasonableness out of rationalism.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRThat is one of the flagrant misconceptions about Catholicism in America that if a man is a Catholic he owes allegiance to what they say a foreign sovereign, or something like that.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRA genuine faith resolves the mystery of life by the mystery of God.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRThe significance of the law of love is precisely that it is not just another law, but a law which transcends all law.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRNothing worth doing can be accomplished in a single lifetime.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRIf we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.
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.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRWe ought to really at least recognize the common predicament of Communists and democrats – or Americans, whatever.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRThere must be equality of all men before God and in a democratic society. Now that’s one of the great achievements.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRWe 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.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRYou can’t say that religion or irreligion will give us a particular answer to the nuclear dilemma.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRReason tends to check selfish impulses and to grant the satisfaction of legitimate impulses in others.
REINHOLD NIEBUHREvery experience proves that the real problem of our existence lies in the fact that we ought to love one another, but do not.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRThe final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.
REINHOLD NIEBUHRCertainly, anybody who says, “in the eyes of God,” is pretentious.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR