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All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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Reinhold Niebuhr
Age: 78 †
Born: 1892
Born: June 21
Died: 1971
Died: June 1
Ethicist
Philosopher
Political Scientist
Theologian
University Teacher
Wright City
Missouri
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr
Group
Coercion
Groups
Cooperation
Social
Scale
Larger
Scales
Intimate
Measure
Requires

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The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.
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That is one of the flagrant misconceptions about Catholicism in America that if a man is a Catholic he owes allegiance to what they say a foreign sovereign, or something like that.
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If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.
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[There is] an increasing tendency among modern men to imagine themselves ethical because they have delegated their vices to larger and larger groups.
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Faith is the final triumph over incongruity, the final assertion of the meaningfulness of existence.
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The Jews were the money-lenders of the Middle Ages so there's a stereotype of the slightly or more than slightly dishonest business man and this stereotype covers and obscures all the facts.
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All this talk about atheistic materialism and God-fearing American I think is beside the point it's a rather vapid form of religion.
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The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.
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I don't know whether any religious leader would say that we must ultimately win, because we're on God's side. If they do say that, it's bad religion.
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There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause.
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I think I have one answer, that is partly religious and partly secular and that is to say, we ought to at least recognize that we and the Russians are in a common predicament. That would be religious in the sense, Judge not lest you be judged.
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The cross symbolizes a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one.
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One of the fundamental points about religious humility is you say you don't know about the ultimate judgment. It's beyond your judgment. And if you equate God's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.
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I think that the achievements of Catholicism on race are very, very impressive.
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Every experience proves that the real problem of our existence lies in the fact that we ought to love one another, but do not.
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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.
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Not only in America but in Germany, in France since the war, in Germany after the First World War, the Germany of Adenauer, these are the creative relationships of Catholicism to a free society that the average American doesn't fully appreciate.
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Better not read books in which you make acquaintance of the devil.
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I'm not afraid of too many things, and I got that invincible kind of attitude from my father.
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What is so funny about us is precisely that we take ourselves too seriously. Laughter is the same and healthy response to the innocent foibles of men and even to some which are not innocent.
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