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
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.
Interpretation
Mastery of rules allows for creative freedom, but ignorance leads to mistakes.
This quote emphasizes the importance of understanding the foundational principles of any field—be it art, architecture, or religion—before attempting to innovate or break those rules. It suggests that true creativity stems from knowledge and mastery, while ignorance leaves one vulnerable to repeating past errors.
In practice
In a speech about innovation in design, one could reference this quote to stress the importance of foundational knowledge.
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.
The formula of the argument is simple and familiar: to dispose of a problem all that is necessary is to deny that it exists.
And we are magic talking to itself, noisy and alone. I am queen of all my sins forgotten. Am I still lost? Once I was beautiful. Now I am myself
Whatsoever that be within us that feels, thinks, desires, and animates, is something celestial, divine, and, consequently, imperishable.
What secret knowledge, one must wonder, is breathed into lawyers when they become Justices of this Court that enables them to discern that a practice which the text of the Constitution does not clearly proscribe, and which our people have regarded as constitutional for 200 years, is in fact unconstitutional?
There is an overabundance of rational reasons to say no to factory-farmed meat: It is the No. 1 cause of global warming, it systematically forces tens of billions of animals to suffer in ways that would be illegal if they were dogs, it is a decisive factor in the development of swine and avian flus, and so on.
Taking somebody's money without permission is stealing, unless you work for the IRS; then it's taxation. Killing people en masse is homicidal mania, unless you work for the Army; then it's National Defense. Spying on your neighbors is invasion of privacy, unless you work for the FBI; then it's National Security. Running a whorehouse makes you a pimp and poisoning people makes you a murderer, unless you work for the CIA; then it's counter-intelligence.
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