Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes on Politics
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 politics, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”
The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944) -
Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr:
“Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; pure love without power is destroyed.”
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Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr:
“The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.”
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“The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men.”
As quoted in obituary '"Reinhold Niebuhr Is Dead; Protestant Theologian, 78" by Alden Whitman in The New York Times (2 June 1971) -
“The stupidity of the average man will permit the oligarch , whether economic or political, to hide his real purposes from the scrutiny of his fellows and to withdraw his activities from effective control. Since it is impossible to count on enough moral goodwill among those who possess irresponsible power to sacrifice it for the good of the whole, it must be destroyed by coercive methods and these will always run the peril of introducing new forms of injustice in place of those abolished.”
p.21