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Reason tends to check selfish impulses and to grant the satisfaction of legitimate impulses in others.

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
Selfish
Impulses
Satisfaction
Legitimate
Others
Grant
Reason
Grants
Tends
Check
Checks
Impulse

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The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.
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We have previously suggested that philanthropy combines genuine pity with the display of power and that the latter element explains why the powerful are more inclined to be generous than to grant social justice.
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Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.
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We have to risk a nuclear war in order to escape capitulation to Communism. For all I know, we may stumble into this terrible war.
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Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.
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Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone therefore we are saved by love.
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We have had to learn that history is neither a God nor a redeemer.
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Great talents have some admirers, but few friends.
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Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.
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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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Better not read books in which you make acquaintance of the devil.
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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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Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted and pure love without power is destroyed.
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All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.
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I wouldn't judge a man by the presuppositions of his life, but only by the fruits of his life. And the fruits - the relevant fruits - are, I'd say, a sense of charity, a sense of proportion, a sense of justice.
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The prophet himself stands under the judgment which he preaches. If he does not know that, he is a false prophet.
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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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The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.
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To the end of history, social orders will probably destroy themselves in an effort to prove they are indestructible.
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If you equate God's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.
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