Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
The cross symbolizes a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one.
Interpretation
Love has the power to overcome challenges, but achieving this victory requires effort and perseverance.
In this quote, Reinhold Niebuhr suggests that love is a fundamental and transcendent force in the universe that shapes both history and our personal lives. However, he acknowledges that while love ultimately prevails, the journey to this victory is fraught with struggles and difficulties, emphasizing the importance of resilience in our pursuit of love.
In practice
During a wedding speech, one could quote this to emphasize the challenges that love can overcome.
Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.
The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan value and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism.
The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.
All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.
Forgiveness is the final form of love.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.
Love is responsibility of an I for a You: in this consists what cannot consist in any feeling - the equality of all lovers.
In the kitchens of love, after all, vice is like the pepper in a good sauce; it brings out the flavor, itβs indispensable.
But maybe you never really had someone, she thought now. Maybe, no matter how much you loved them, they could slip through your fingers like water, and there was nothing you could do about it.
Wicked people means people who have no love: therefore, they have no shame. They have the power to ask love because the don't need it: they have the power to offer it because they have none to give.
My own observation is: lovers don't surrender to each other, they surrender to something unknown that exists between them. They surrender to love - call it the 'god of love' - they both surrender to the god of love. Hence nobody's ego is fulfilled by your surrender; both the egos disappear in love.
Perhaps this is what the stories meant when they called somebody heartsick. Your heart and your stomach and your whole insides felt empty and hollow and aching.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.