He was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world. His long-term impact involves relating the Christian faith to “realism” in foreign affairs, rather than idealism, and his contribution to modern “just war” thinking. Niebuhr’s perspective influenced many liberals, who came to support a “realist” foreign policy.
Such recent leaders of American foreign policy as Jimmy Carter, Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama have acknowledged Niebuhr’s importance to them.
(1892 – 1971)
– Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes –
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
Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Forgiveness is the final form of love.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
~ 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
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.
~ 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
All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Our age knows nothing but reaction, and leaps from one extreme to another.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
There is no cure for the pride of a virtuous nation but pure religion.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
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
