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Because suffering is the exhibition of the presence in our existence of that which is not under our control, or of the intrusion into our self-legislating existence of an activity operating under another law than ours, it cannot be brought adequately within the spheres of teleological and deontological ethics, the ethics of man-the-maker, or man-the-citizen.

— H. Richard Niebuhr The Responsible Self: An Essay in Christian Moral Philosophy (1963)

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More quotes by H. Richard Niebuhr

Radical Christians are always making use of the culture, or parts of the culture, which they ostensibly reject.

Christ and Culture (1951)

Faith and God belong together somewhat as sense experience and physical reality do.

Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960)

Faith is at least as much an unavoidable counterpart of the presence of God as sense experience is an unavoidable counterpart of the presence of natural entities.

Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960)

The spirit of Jesus revolted against Jewish class distinctions between the righteous few and the unhallowed many He spoke to the outcast poor of the promise of the kingdom.

The Social Sources of Denominationalism (1929)

Men must continue to condemn themselves not only for their failure to do what they could, but also for their failure to perform what they could not, for their denial of the absolute good whose categorical demands were laid upon their incapable will.

The Social Sources of Denominationalism (1929)

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