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.

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime therefore we must be saved by hope.

If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.

The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.

The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self-mastery.

Man's capacity for evil makes democracy necessary and man's capacity for good makes democracy possible.

Forgiveness is the final form of love.

Faith is the final triumph over incongruity the final assertion of the meaningfulness of existence.

I'm not afraid of too many things and I got that invincible kind of attitude from my father.

O God give us serenity to accept what cannot be changed courage to change what should be changed and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

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

It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive justice and should not be made into a bastion of conservatism, particularly a conservatism which defends unjust privileges.

Humor is a prelude to faith, and laughter is the beginning of prayer.

Humour is, in fact, a prelude to faith; and laughter is the beginning of prayer _ Laughter is swallowed up in prayer and humour is fulfilled by faith.

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.