183 Quotes by Reinhold Niebuhr

A wise architect observed that you could break the laws of architec75tural art provided you had mastered them first. That would apply to religion as well as to art. Ignorance of the past does not guarantee freedom from its imperfections.

All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.

The significance of the law of love is precisely that it is not just another law, but a law which transcends all law.

What is so funny about us is precisely that we take ourselves too seriously. Laughter is the same and healthy response to the innocent foibles of men; and even to some which are not innocent.

It is significant that it is as difficult to get charity out of piety as to get reasonableness out of rationalism.

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.

The chief source of man's inhumanity to man seems to be the tribal limits of his sense of obligation to other men.

Man is endowed by nature with organic relations to his fellow men; and natural impulse prompts him to consider the needs of others even when they compete with his own.

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.