30 Quotes By Reinhold Niebuhr


The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.
Reinhold Niebuhr on politics

Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted and pure love without power is destroyed.
Reinhold Niebuhr on power

There is no cure for the pride of a virtuous nation but pure religion.
Reinhold Niebuhr on religion

The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.
Reinhold Niebuhr on sad

I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.
Reinhold Niebuhr on truth

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.
Reinhold Niebuhr on war

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.
Reinhold Niebuhr on war

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.
Reinhold Niebuhr on wisdom

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Reinhold Niebuhr on wisdom

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