Reinhold Niebuhr

Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems. 

Reinhold Niebuhr 

Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity. 

Reinhold Niebuhr 

Forgiveness is the final form of love. 

Reinhold Niebuhr 

All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions. 

Reinhold Niebuhr 

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 

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

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 

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. 

Reinhold Niebuhr 

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 

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

Reinhold Niebuhr