Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.
Reinhold NiebuhrOriginal sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.
Reinhold NiebuhrNow when the historic religions give trivial answers to these very tragic questions of our day, when an evangelist says, for instance, we mustn't hope for a summit meeting, we must hope in Christ without spelling out what this could mean in our particular nuclear age. This is the irrelevant answer, when another Evangelist says if America doesn't stop being selfish, it will be doomed. This is also a childish answer because nations are selfish and the question about America isn't whether we will be selfish or unselfish, but will we be sufficiently imaginative to pass the Reciprocal Trade Acts.
Reinhold Niebuhr