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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.

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
Among
Groups
Delegated
Modern
Increasing
Imagine
Tendency
Men
Ethical
Tendencies
Larger
Vices

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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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Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history therefore we must be saved by faith.
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The dimension of depth in the consciousness of religion creates the tension between what is and what ought to be. It bends the bow from which every arrow of moral action flies.
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Better not read books in which you make acquaintance of the devil.
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The history of mankind is a perennial tragedy for the highest ideals which the individual may project are ideals which he can never realize in social and collective terms.
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Man has always been his own most vexing problem.
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For man as an historical creature has desires of indeterminate dimensions.
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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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If you equate God's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.
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There is no social evil, no form of injustice whether of the feudal or the capitalist order which has not been sanctified in some way or other by religious sentiment and thereby rendered more impervious to change.
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Nationalism: One of the effective ways in which the modern man escapes life's ethical problems.
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To be religious is not to feel, but to be.
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Reason tends to check selfish impulses and to grant the satisfaction of legitimate impulses in others.
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Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted and pure love without power is destroyed.
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We judge the Russians because they're living under despotism and we don't like it, but we've gotten into a fix now where we're living in a common predicament, and we ought to recognize this common predicament.
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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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Since inequalities of privilege are greater than could possibly be defended rationally, the intelligence of privileged groups is usually applied to the task of inventing specious proofs for the theory that universal values spring from, and that general interests are served by, the special privileges which they hold.
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Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life.
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We misjudge anybody who's different from us and the Jews diverge from our type, ethnically and religiously. That's their chief offense, but there are particular causes.
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Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.
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