Reinhold Niebuhr

For man as an historical creature has desires of indeterminate dimensions.

If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God.

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

Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.

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

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

Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.

Aim for the stars and maybe you'll reach the sky.

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

What is funny about us is precisely that we take ourselves too seriously.

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

Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil people, but by good people who do not know themselves and who do not probe deeply.

Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.