[There is] an increasing tendency among modern men to imagine themselves ethical because they have delegated their vices to larger and larger groups.
Reinhold NiebuhrEvil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.
Reinhold NiebuhrThe chief source of man's inhumanity to man seems to be the tribal limits of his sense of obligation to other men.
Reinhold NiebuhrThe society in which each man lives is at once the basis for, and the nemesis of, that fulness of life which each man seeks.
Reinhold NiebuhrNothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.
Reinhold NiebuhrThe 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.
Reinhold Niebuhr