Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Politics serves the challenging role of creating fairness in an imperfect world.
Reinhold Niebuhr's quote reflects the complex nature of politics as both a necessary and often arduous endeavor. It acknowledges that while the world may be flawed and marred by injustice, the responsibility of political leaders is to strive for justice, indicating that such efforts are inevitable yet solemn in the face of human imperfection. It emphasizes the moral duty to work towards a just society despite the inherent struggles of human nature.
Themes
PoliticsJusticeSinDutyWorld
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on moral responsibility in governance.
More from Reinhold Niebuhr
All quotes βThe tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan value and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
Forgiveness is the final form of love.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
Similar quotes
Physical pain is not a simple affair of an impulse, travelling at a fixed rate along a nerve. It is the resultant of a conflict between a stimulus and the whole individual.
Rene LericheRead
Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
A God capable of continuously monitoring and controlling the individual status of every particle in the universe cannot be simple. His existence is going to need a mammoth explanation in its own right.
Richard DawkinsRead
The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.
V. S. NaipaulRead
The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind.
George MasonRead
In the space which thought creates around itself there is no love. This space divides man from man, and in it is all the becoming, the battle of life, the agony and fear. Meditation is the ending of this space, the ending of the me.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead