In the 17th and 18th centuries there was a kind of Protestantism that said, "If you could only get rid of the Bishop, then you'd be a true Christian".

Faith is the final triumph over incongruity, the final assertion of the meaningfulness of existence.

Every experience proves that the real problem of our existence lies in the fact that we ought to love one another, but do not.

The intimate relation between humor and faith is derived from the fact that both deal with the incongruities of our existence. Laughter is our reaction to immediate incongruities and those which do not affect us essentially. Faith is the only possible response to the ultimate incongruities of existence, which threaten the very meaning of our life.

Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments.

Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.

We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization. We must exercise our power. But we ought neither to believe that a nation is capable of perfect disinterestedness in its exercise, nor become complacent about a particular degree of interest and passion which corrupt the justice by which the exercise of power is legitimatized.