Reinhold Niebuhr

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

Our age knows nothing but reaction, and leaps from one extreme to another.

Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice.

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

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

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

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

The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.

Forgiveness is the final form of love.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the 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.