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Our dreams of a pure virtue are dissolved in a situation in which it is possible to exercise the virtue of responsibility toward a community of nations only by courting the prospective guilt of the atomic bomb.

— Reinhold Niebuhr The Irony of American History (1952)

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More quotes by Reinhold Niebuhr

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (1944)

Man is endowed by nature with organic relations to his fellow men; and natural impulse prompts him to consider the needs of others even when they compete with his own.

Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932)

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

The Serenity Prayer (1942)

All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.

Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932)

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)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Reinhold Niebuhr (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.