Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes on Life
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American Reformed theologian and the principal exponent of Christian realism in twentieth-century social thought. This page collects quotes attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr on the topic of life, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“The measure of our rationality determines the degree of vividness with which we appreciate the needs of other life , the extent to which we become conscious of the real character of our own motives and impulses, the ability to harmonize conflicting impulses in our own life and in society, and the capacity to choose adequate means for approved ends.”
pp. 27-28 -
“Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man . His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life . Reason may extend and stabilise, but it does not create , the capacity to affirm other life than his own.”
Moral Man and Immoral Society(1932) | p.26 -
“The society in which each man lives is at once the basis for, and the nemesis of, that fulness of life which each man seeks.”
Moral Man and Immoral Society(1932) | p.1 -
“An irrevocable defeat of a socio-historical cause which gives meaning to the life of the individual must create a complete sense of meaninglessness unless the individual is sustained by a religion which interprets such defeats from the aspect of the eternal .”
The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation(1941) | vol. 1, p. 69