Top Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Reinhold Niebuhr Biography

Reinhold Niebuhr

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (/ˈraɪnhoʊld ˈniːbʊər/; June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man, the second of which Modern Library ranked one of the top 20 nonfiction books of the twentieth century. Andrew Bacevich labelled Niebuhr's book The Irony of American History "the most important book ever written on U.S. foreign policy." Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. described Niebuhr as "the most influential American theologian of the 20th century" and Time posthumously called Niebuhr "the greatest Protestant theologian in America since Jonathan Edwards."

Read about Reinhold Niebuhr in Wikipedia

Random Authors

Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes

It is the evil in man that makes democracy necessary, and man's belief in justice that makes democracy possible.

Belief, Evil, Justice, Man, Men

Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

Democracy, Finding, Findings, Problem, Problems, Proximate

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.

Family, Justice, Life, Spirit

Man is always worse than most people suspect, but also generally better than most people dream.

Dream, Men, People, Worse

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. There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause. Then religion mustn't interfere with the state - so one of the basic Democratic principles as we know it in America is the separation of church and state.

America, Cause, Giving, Religious, Sanctity, State

Adam Smith's was a real universalism in intent. Laissez Faire was intended to establish a world community as well as a natural harmony of interests within each nation. . . But the "children of darkness" were able to make good use of his creed. A dogma which was intended to guarantee the economic freedom of the individual became the "ideology" of vast corporate structures of a later period of capitalism, used by them, and still used, to prevent a proper political control of their power.

Children, Community, Creed, Faire, Real

There was a time when I had all the answers. My real growth began when I discovered that the questions to which I had the answers were not the important questions.

Real, Growth, Important, Time, Answers

There has been a religious revival because - let me put it like this, the people that weren't traditionally religious, conventionally religious, had a religion of their own in my youth. These were liberals who believed in the idea of progress or they were Marxists. Both of these secular religions have broken down.

Ideas, Marxists, People, Religious

There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause.

Church, Giving, Political, Sanctity, Ultimate

Man is both strong and weak, both free and bound, both blind and far-seeing. He stands at the juncture of nature and spirit; and is involved in both freedom and necessity.

Strong, Men, Spirit, Free, Juncture, Involved

History may defeat the Christ but it nevertheless points to him as the law of life.

Law, History, May, Life, Christ

You can't say that religion or irreligion will give us a particular answer to the nuclear dilemma.

Answers, Giving, Irreligion, Nuclear, Particular, Say

That's why history is not an answer to our problem, because history complicates, enlarges every problem of human existence. Now, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries didn't believe this.

Answers, Believe, History, Nineteenth, Problem

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

Fruit, Judgments, Self, Simple

Liberalism makes this mistake in regard to private property and Marxism makes it in regard to socialized property. . . The Marxist illusion is partly derived from a romantic conception of human nature. . . It assumes that the socialization of property will eliminate human egotism. . . The development of a managerial class in Russia, combing economic with political power, is an historic refutation of the Marxist theory.

Class, Mistake, Private, Property, Regard, Wisdom

The churches that are most obviously democratic are most obviously given to race prejudice. I mean the churches that have absolute congregational control.

Absolute, Church, Mean, Obviously, Race

I cannot worship the abstractions of virtue: she only charms me when she addresses herself to my heart, speaks through the love from which she springs.

Addresses, Heart, Love, Speaks, Spring, Springs

A republic properly understood is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will.

Democracy, Justice, Properly, Republic, Sovereignty, Understood

For democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions for insoluble problems.

Democracy, Insoluble, Method, Problem, Problems

The final test of religious faith. . . is whether it will enable men to endure insecurity without complacency or despair, whether it can so interpret the ancient verities that they will not become mere escape hatches from responsibilities but instruments of insights into what civilization means.

Religious, Responsibility, Mean, Verities, Instruments, Final

1