Reinhold Niebuhr

30 quotes

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

• The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.

• One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun.

• Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.

• Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

• Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments.

• Humor is a prelude to faith, and laughter is the beginning of prayer.

• God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.

• 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.

• Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

• The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.

• When economic power desires to be left alone it uses the philosophy of laissez faire to discourage political restraint upon economic freedom. When it wants to make use of the police power of the state to subdue rebellions and discontent in the ranks of its helots, it justifies the use of political coercion and the resulting suppression of liberties by insisting that peace is more precious than freedom and that its only desire is social peace.

• I wonder if anyone who needs a snappy song service can really appreciate the meaning of the cross.

• 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.

• Change is the essence of life; be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.

• Rationality belongs to the cool observer, but because of the stupidity of the average man, he follows not reason, but faith, and the naive faith requires necessary illusion and emotionally potent oversimplifications which are provided by the myth-maker to keep ordinary person on course.

• Humour is, in fact, a prelude to faith; and laughter is the beginning of prayer … Laughter is swallowed up in prayer and humour is fulfilled by faith.

• There is no deeper pathos in the spiritual life of man than the cruelty of righteous people. If any one idea dominates the teachings of Jesus, it is his opposition to the self-righteousness of the righteous.

• God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

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

• comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable

• To the end of history, social orders will probably destroy themselves in an effort to prove they are indestructible.

• Forgiveness is the final form of love.

• Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.

• Humour is, in fact, a prelude to faith; and laughter is the beginning of prayer. Laughter must be heard in the outer courts of religion, and the echoes of it should resound in the sanctuary; but there is no laughter in the holy of holies. There laughter is swallowed up in prayer and humour is fulfilled by faith. The intimate relation between humour and faith is derived from the fact that both deal with the incongruities of our existence. ... Laughter is our reaction to immediate incongruities and those which do not affect us essentially. Faith is the only possible response to the ultimate incongruities of existence, which threaten the very meaning of our life.

• Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is 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 must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

• Change what cannot be accepted and accept what cannot be changed.

• Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful 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.

• Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.

• Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.