Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our own standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.

This insinuation of the interests of the self into even the most ideal enterprises and most universal objectives, envisaged in moments of highest rationality, makes hypocrisy an inevitable by product of all virtuous endeavor.

The chief source of man's inhumanity to man seems to be the tribal limits of his sense of obligation to other men.

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

Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact that no group of idealists can easily move the pattern of history toward the desired goal of peace and justice. The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.

I think that the achievements of Catholicism on race are very, very impressive.

We have to risk a nuclear war in order to escape capitulation to Communism. For all I know, we may stumble into this terrible war.