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Better Not Read Books In Which You Make Acquaintance Of The Devil.
-Reinhold Niebuhr
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Better Not Read Books

Reinhold Niebuhr
...
Better Not Read Books In Which You Make Acquaintance Of The Devil.

Understanding the Quote: "better not read books in which you make acquaintance of the devil...."

This quote by Reinhold Niebuhr reflects deeply on the theme of book. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Book, Devil, Acquaintance, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Reinhold Niebuhr interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr is celebrated for insightful thoughts on book and devil. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Book
Devil
Acquaintance
More From Reinhold Niebuhr
Liberalism Makes This Mistake In Regard To Private Property And Marxism Makes It In Regard To Socialized Property... The Marxist Illusion Is Partly Derived From A Romantic Conception Of Human Nature... It Assumes That The Socialization Of Property Will Eliminate Human Egotism... The Development Of A Managerial Class In Russia, Combing Economic With Political Power, Is An Historic Refutation Of The Marxist Theory.
Wisdom
Mistake
Russia
...(i)ndividual Selfhood Is Expressed In The Self's Capacity For Self-transcendence And Not In Its Rational Capacity For Conceptual And Analytic Procedures.
Self
Spirituality
Transcendence
I Thank Heaven I Have Often Had It In My Power To Give Help And Relief, And This Is Still My Greatest Pleasure. If I Could Choose My Sphere Of Action Now, It Would Be That Of The Most Simple And Direct Efforts Of This Kind.
Simple
Giving
Effort
Now 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.
Selfish
Mean
America
My Personal Attitude Toward Atheists Is The Same Attitude That I Have Toward Christians, And Would Be Governed By A Very Orthodox Text: "by Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them."
Christian
Atheist
Attitude
I Cannot Worship The Abstractions Of Virtue: She Only Charms Me When She Addresses Herself To My Heart, Speaks Through The Love From Which She Springs.
Spring
Heart
Addresses
The Old Prose Writers Wrote As If They Were Speaking To An Audience; While, Among Us, Prose Is Invariably Written For The Eye Alone.
Eye
Style
Audience
Ultimately Evil Is Done Not So Much By Evil People, But By Good People Who Do Not Know Themselves And Who Do Not Probe Deeply.
Evil People
Done
Good People
Frantic Orthodoxy Is Never Rooted In Faith But In Doubt. It Is When We Are Unsure That We Are Doubly Sure.
Wisdom
Doubt
Orthodoxy
We Ought To Really At Least Recognize The Common Predicament Of Communists And Democrats - Or Americans, Whatever.
Common
Communist
Predicaments
History Is A Realm In Which Human Freedom And Natural Necessity Are Curiously Intermingled.
Natural
Realms
Humans
Our Age Knows Nothing But Reaction, And Leaps From One Extreme To Another.
Age
Leaps And Bounds
Reactions
A Church Has The Right To Set Its Own Standards Within Its Community. I Don't Think It Has A Right To Prohibit Birth Control Or To Enforce Upon A Secular Society Its Conception Of Divorce And The Indissolubility Of The Marriage Tie.
Divorce
Thinking
Secular Society
For Democracy Is A Method Of Finding Proximate Solutions For Insoluble Problems.
Democracy
Problem
Method
The Will-to-live Becomes The Will-to-power.
Will Power
Will To Live
It's Always Wise To Seek The Truth In Our Opponents' Error, And The Error In Our Own Truth.
Wise
Errors
Opponents
Nothing Which Is True Or Beautiful Or Good Makes Complete Sense In Any Immediate Context Of History; Therefore We Must Be Saved By Faith.
Beautiful
Saved
Adam Smith's Was A Real Universalism In Intent. Laissez Faire Was Intended To Establish A World Community As Well As A Natural Harmony Of Interests Within Each Nation... But The "children Of Darkness" Were Able To Make Good Use Of His Creed. A Dogma Which Was Intended To Guarantee The Economic Freedom Of The Individual Became The "ideology" Of Vast Corporate Structures Of A Later Period Of Capitalism, Used By Them, And Still Used, To Prevent A Proper Political Control Of Their Power.
Children
Real
Community
I Think That When We Believe That Something Is Right, There's A Serious Ambivalence About It. On One Hand, You Say, Because It's Right, It Must Be Victorious. On The Other Hand, You Say, It's Right Whether It's Victorious Or Not. And This Is What I Believe About A Free Society.
Believe
Thinking
Hands
Marxism Is The Modern Form Of Jewish Prophecy.
Modern
Form
Marxism
The More Complex The World Situation Becomes, The More Scientific And Rational Analysis You Have To Have, The Less You Can Do With Simple Good Will And Sentiment.
Simple
Analysis
World
My Personal Attitude Toward Atheists Is The Same Attitude That I Have Toward Christians, And Would Be Governed By A Very Orthodox Text: "by Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them." I Wouldn't Judge A Man By The Presuppositions Of His Life, But Only By The Fruits Of His Life. And The Fruits - The Relevant Fruits - Are, I'd Say, A Sense Of Charity, A Sense Of Proportion, A Sense Of Justice. And Whether The Man Is An Atheist Or A Christian, I Would Judge Him By His Fruits, And I Have Therefore Many Agnostic Friends.
Christian
Atheist
Attitude
If You Equate God's Judgment With Your Judgment, You Have A Wrong Religion.
Judgment
Ifs
The Whole Art Of Politics Consists In Directing Rationally The Irrationalities Of Men.
Art
Men
Politics
I Might Say That The Debate Between Atheists And Christians Is Rather Stale To Me, Because The Christians Say, "you Must Be A Christian, Or You Must Be A Religious Man, In Order To Be Good," And The Atheists Will Say, "it's Beneath The Dignity Of A Free Man To Bow His Knee To A God, As If He Were A Sinner," Or Something Like That.
Christian
Religious
Atheist
The Mastery Of Nature Is Vainly Believed To Be An Adequate Substitute For Self Mastery.
Nature
Self
Environmental
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.
Believe
Passion
Exercise
We Have Previously Suggested That Philanthropy Combines Genuine Pity With The Display Of Power And That The Latter Element Explains Why The Powerful Are More Inclined To Be Generous Than To Grant Social Justice.
Powerful
Justice
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I Think There Ought To Be A Club In Which Preachers And Journalists Could Come Together And Have The Sentimentalism Of The One Matched With The Cynicism Of The Other. That Ought To Bring Them Pretty Close To The Truth.
Thinking
Together
Clubs
The Final Test Of Religious Faith... Is Whether It Will Enable Men To Endure Insecurity Without Complacency Or Despair, Whether It Can So Interpret The Ancient Verities That They Will Not Become Mere Escape Hatches From Responsibilities But Instruments Of Insights Into What Civilization Means.
Religious
Mean
Responsibility
All Known Existence Points Beyond Itself.
Existence
Known
In The Old Testament, The God Of The Prophets Never Was Completely On Israel's Side. There Was A Primitive National Religion, But It Was Always A Transcendent God Who Had Judgment First In The House Of God. This Is The True Religion. It Has A Sense Of A Transcendent Majesty And A Transcendent Meaning So That That Puts Myself And The Foe Under The Same Judgment.
Israel
House
Majesty
Whether The Man Is An Atheist Or A Christian, I Would Judge Him By His Fruits, And I Have Therefore Many Agnostic Friends.
Christian
Atheist
Men
Certainly, Anybody Who Says, "in The Eyes Of God," Is Pretentious.
Eye
Pretentious
Original Sin Is That Thing About Man Which Makes Him Capable Of Conceiving Of His Own Perfection And Incapable Of Achieving It.
Men
Perfection
Sin
The Final Wisdom Of Life Requires Not The Annulment Of Incongruity But The Achievement Of Serenity Within And Above It.
Moving On
Wisdom
Achievement
Evil Is Not To Be Traced Back To The Individual But To The Collective Behavior Of Humanity.
Evil
Humanity
Behavior
You Can't Say That Religion Or Irreligion Will Give Us A Particular Answer To The Nuclear Dilemma.
Giving
Answers
Nuclear
The Recalcitrant Forces In The Historical Drama Have A Power And Persistence Beyond Our Reckoning.
Drama
Persistence
Historical
I Know That The Communists Are Atheistic And Godless, But I Don't Think That That's What's Primarily The Matter With Them. What's Primarily The Matter With Them Is That They Worship A False God. That's Much More Dangerous Than When People Don't Believe Anything; They May Be Confused, They May Not Have A Sense Of The Meaning Of Life, But They're Not Dangerous.
Confused
Believe
Thinking
To The End Of History, Social Orders Will Probably Destroy Themselves In An Effort To Prove They Are Indestructible.
Order
Effort
Social
Man's Capacity For Justice Makes Democracy Possible, But Man's Inclination To Injustice Makes Democracy Necessary.
Freedom
Integrity
Adversity
It Is The Evil In Man That Makes Democracy Necessary, And Man's Belief In Justice That Makes Democracy Possible.
Men
Evil
Justice
Nothing We Do, However Virtuous, Can Be Accomplished Alone; Therefore We Are Saved By Love.
Love
Accomplishment
Accomplished
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.
War
Order
Risk
Family Life Is Too Intimate To Be Preserved By The Spirit Of Justice. It Can Be Sustained By A Spirit Of Love Which Goes Beyond Justice.
Family
Justice
Spirit
Self-righteousness Is The Inevitable Fruit Of Simple Moral Judgments.
Simple
Self
Fruit
What Is So Funny About Us Is Precisely That We Take Ourselves Too Seriously. Laughter Is The Same And Healthy Response To The Innocent Foibles Of Men; And Even To Some Which Are Not Innocent.
Laughter
Men
Healthy
Humour Is, In Fact, A Prelude To Faith; And Laughter Is The Beginning Of Prayer … Laughter Is Swallowed Up In Prayer And Humour Is Fulfilled By Faith.
Laughter
Prayer
Facts
Nothing Worth Doing Can Be Accomplished In A Single Lifetime.
Single Life
Lifetime
Accomplished
There Must Be Equality Of All Men Before God And In A Democratic Society. Now That's One Of The Great Achievements.
Men
Democratic
Achievement
Man Has Always Been His Own Most Vexing Problem.
Men
Problem
The Cross Symbolizes A Cosmic As Well As Historic Truth. Love Conquers The World, But Its Victory Is Not An Easy One.
Conquer The World
Victory
Historic
I've Long Ago Felt, I Have Many Jewish Friends And I Very I Think Creative Jewish Friends, And I've Long Felt That The Average Christian Didn't Realize The Tremendous Capacity For Civic Righteousness Among Our Jewish People.
Christian
Thinking
Average
Life Is A Battle Between Faith And Reason In Which Each Feeds Upon The Other, Drawing Sustenance From It And Destroying It.
Drawing
Battle
Life Is
Nothing That Is Worth Doing Can Be Achieved In Our Lifetime; Therefore We Must Be Saved By Hope. Nothing Which Is True Or Beautiful Or Good Makes Complete Sense In Any Immediate Context Of History; Therefore We Must Be Saved By Faith. Nothing We Do, However Virtuous, Can Be Accomplished Alone; Therefore We Must Be Saved By Love. No Virtuous Act Is Quite As Virtuous From The Standpoint Of Our Friend Or Foe As It Is From Our Standpoint. Therefore We Must Be Saved By The Final Form Of Love Which Is Forgiveness.
Love
Beautiful
Forgiveness
The Chief Source Of Man's Inhumanity To Man Seems To Be The Tribal Limits Of His Sense Of Obligation To Other Men.
Men
Inhumanity To Man
Limits
Politics Deals With A Common-sense Approach To The Imponderables Of History, That I Think Are Obscured By A Certain Kind Of Rationalism.
Thinking
Common Sense
Kind
We Misjudge Anybody Who's Different From Us And The Jews Diverge From Our Type, Ethnically And Religiously. That's Their Chief Offense, But There Are Particular Causes.
Causes
Different
Type
That's Why History Is Not An Answer To Our Problem, Because History Complicates, Enlarges Every Problem Of Human Existence. Now, The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries Didn't Believe This.
Believe
Answers
Problem
I Don't Know Whether Any Religious Leader Would Say That We Must Ultimately Win, Because We're On God's Side. If They Do Say That, It's Bad Religion.
Religious
Winning
Leader
Now The Ordinary Protestant, Jew Or Secularist Has A Stereotype About Catholicism. It Consists Of Spanish Catholicism, Latin-american Catholicism And, Let Us Say, A Catholicism Of O'connor's "great Hurrah." Now There Are Types Of Catholicism Like That But This Doesn't - This Doesn't Do Justice To The Genuine Relation That Catholicism Has Had To Democratic Society.
Latin
Justice
Ordinary
All You Earnest Young Men Out To Save The World. . . Please, Have A Laugh.
Laughter
Men
Laughing
We Judge The Russians Because They're Living Under Despotism And We Don't Like It, But We've Gotten Into A Fix Now Where We're Living In A Common Predicament, And We Ought To Recognize This Common Predicament.
Judging
Common
Predicaments
While It Is Possible For Intelligence To Increase The Range Of Benevolent Impulse, And Thus Prompt A Human Being To Consider The Needs And Rights Of Other Than Those To Whom He Is Bound By Organic And Physical Relationship, There Are Definite Limits In The Capacity Of Ordinary Mortals Which Makes It Impossible For Them To Grant To Others What They Claim For Themselves.
Rights
Ordinary
Needs
A Genuine Faith Resolves The Mystery Of Life By The Mystery Of God.
Mysterious
Mystery
Genuine
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.
Self
Hypocrisy
Moments
No Nation Can Say, 'we Will Capitulate To Tyranny Rather Than Accept A Speculative Fate - To Accept An Absolute Fate In Alternative To A Speculative One' - No Nation Can Do That.
Fate
Alternatives
Accepting
The Scientific Observer Of The Realm Of Nature Is In A Sense Naturally And Inevitably Disinterested. At Least, Nothing In The Natural Scene Can Arouse His Bias. Furthermore, He Stands Completely Outside Of The Natural So That His Mind, Whatever His Limitations, Approximates Pure Mind. The Observer Of The Realm Of History Cannot Be Disinterested In The Same Way, For Two Reasons: First, He Must Look At History From Some Locus In History; Secondly, He Is To A Certain Degree Engaged In Its Ideological Conflicts.
Science
Two
History
There Is No Cure For The Pride Of A Virtuous Nation But Pure Religion.
Pride
Religion
Cures
The Separation Of Church And State Is Necessary Partly Because If Religion Is Good Then The State Shouldn't Interfere With The Religious Vision Or With The Religious Prophet. There Must Be A Realm Of Truth Beyond Political Competence, That's Why There Must Be A Separation Of Churches, But If Religion Is Bad And A Bad Religion Is One That Gives An Ultimate Sanctity To Some Particular Cause. Then Religion Mustn't Interfere With The State - So One Of The Basic Democratic Principles As We Know It In America Is The Separation Of Church And State.
Religious
America
Giving
For Man As An Historical Creature Has Desires Of Indeterminate Dimensions.
Men
Historical
Desire
Religion Is So Frequently A Source Of Confusion In Political Life, And So Frequently Dangerous To Democracy, Precisely Because It Introduces Absolutes Into The Realm Of Relative Values.
Relative Value
Confusion
Political
There Has Been A Religious Revival Because - Let Me Put It Like This, The People That Weren't Traditionally Religious, Conventionally Religious, Had A Religion Of Their Own In My Youth. These Were Liberals Who Believed In The Idea Of Progress Or They Were Marxists. Both Of These Secular Religions Have Broken Down.
Religious
Ideas
Broken
It Is My Strong Conviction That A Realist Conception Of Human Nature Should Be Made A Servant Of An Ethic Of Progressive Justice And Should Not Be Made Into A Bastion Of Conservatism, Particularly A Conservatism Which Defends Unjust Privileges.
Strong
Justice
Unjust
Human Beings Are Endowed By Nature With Both Selfish And Unselfish Impulses.
Selfish
Impulse
Humans
God Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change, The Courage To Change The Things I Can, And The Wisdom To Know The Difference.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
Better Not Read Books In Which You Make Acquaintance Of The Devil.
Book
Devil
Acquaintance
I Think That The Achievements Of Catholicism On Race Are Very, Very Impressive.
Thinking
Race
Achievement
The Significance Of The Law Of Love Is Precisely That It Is Not Just Another Law, But A Law Which Transcends All Law.
Love Is
Law
Significance
If We Can Find God Only As He Is Revealed In Nature We Have No Moral God.
Moral
Ifs
There Is No Social Evil, No Form Of Injustice Whether Of The Feudal Or The Capitalist Order Which Has Not Been Sanctified In Some Way Or Other By Religious Sentiment And Thereby Rendered More Impervious To Change.
Religious
Order
Evil
Great Talents Have Some Admirers, But Few Friends.
Few Friends
Talent
Admirer
The Sad Duty Of Politics Is To Establish Justice In A Sinful World.
Justice
Politics
World
Ultimately Freedom Is Necessary For A Society, Because Every Despotic Society - For Instance, The Russian Society - Lives On The Basis Of A Rather Implausible Dogma - The Marxist Dogma Of World Redemption Through Communism.
Redemption
World
Dogma
Every Experience Proves That The Real Problem Of Our Existence Lies In The Fact That We Ought To Love One Another, But Do Not.
Real
Lying
Brotherhood
Change What Cannot Be Accepted And Accept What Cannot Be Changed.
Accepted
Accepting
Changed
Reason Tends To Check Selfish Impulses And To Grant The Satisfaction Of Legitimate Impulses In Others.
Selfish
Satisfaction
Reason
[there Is] An Increasing Tendency Among Modern Men To Imagine Themselves Ethical Because They Have Delegated Their Vices To Larger And Larger Groups.
Men
Vices
Groups
One Of The Most Pathetic Aspects Of Human History Is That Every Civilization Expresses Itself Most Pretentiously, Compounds Its Partial And Universal Values Most Convincingly, And Claims Immortality For Its Finite Existence At The Very Moment When The Decay Which Leads To Death Has Already Begun.
Civilization
Decay
Moments
I'm Not Afraid Of Too Many Things, And I Got That Invincible Kind Of Attitude From My Father.
Attitude
Father
Kind
The Churches That Are Most Obviously Democratic Are Most Obviously Given To Race Prejudice. I Mean The Churches That Have Absolute Congregational Control.
Mean
Race
Church
There Are Historic Situations In Which Refusal To Defend The Inheritance Of A Civilization, However Imperfect, Against Tyranny And Aggression May Result In Consequences Even Worse Than War.
War
Civilization
Political
God, Give Me Grace To Accept With Serenity The Things That Cannot Be Changed.
Giving
Serenity
Grace
Human Beings Are Just Good Enough To Make Democracy Possible...just Bad Enough To Make It Neccessary.
Democracy
Good Enough
Humans
Despotism, Which We Regard With Abhorrence, Is Rather Too Plausible In Decaying Feudal, Agrarian, Pastoral Societies. That's Why We Must Expect To Have Many A Defeat Before We'll Have An Ultimate Victory In This Contest With Communism.
Victory
Defeat
Communism
A Republic Properly Understood Is A Sovereignty Of Justice, In Contradistinction To A Sovereignty Of Will.
Justice
Democracy
Republic
Cheese, Wine, And A Friend Must Be Old To Be Good.
Wine
Cheese
Be Good
I Wouldn't Judge A Man By The Presuppositions Of His Life, But Only By The Fruits Of His Life. And The Fruits - The Relevant Fruits - Are, I'd Say, A Sense Of Charity, A Sense Of Proportion, A Sense Of Justice.
Men
Justice
Judging
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.
Life
Finals
Form
Man Is Endowed By Nature With Organic Relations To His Fellow Men; And Natural Impulse Prompts Him To Consider The Needs Of Others Even When They Compete With His Own.
Men
Needs
Fellow Man
All Human Sin Seems So Much Worse In Its Consequences Than In Its Intentions.
Sin
Intention
Humans
Humor Is A Prelude To Faith And Laughter Is The Beginning Of Prayer.
Happiness
Laughter
Prayer
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".
Christian
Bishops
Kind
We Have Had To Learn That History Is Neither A God Nor A Redeemer.
History
Redeemer
Aim For The Stars And Maybe You'll Reach The Sky.
Stars
Government
Sky
The Essence Of Man Is His Freedom. Sin Is Committed In That Freedom. Sin Can Therefore Not Be Attributed To A Defect In His Essence. It Can Only Be Understood As A Self-contradiction, Made Possible By The Fact Of His Freedom But Not Following Necessarily From It.
Men
Self
Essence
Where, But In The Simplicity Of The Gospel, Can You Hear About Both The Dignity Of Man And The Misery Of Man?
Men
Simplicity
Dignity
You Might Get Rid Of The Bishop And Get To The Local Ku Klux Klan Leader. That, On The Whole, Has Been The Fate Of Certain Types Of Protestantism. They Get Under The Control Of A White Citizens Council While The Catholic Church Has An Authoritarian System, Yes, In Which The Bishop Expresses The Conscience Of The Whole Christian Community And They Say There Are Some Things That You Can't Do On This Matter.
Christian
Fate
Ku Klux Klan
The Jews Were The Money-lenders Of The Middle Ages So There's A Stereotype Of The Slightly Or More Than Slightly Dishonest Business Man And This Stereotype Covers And Obscures All The Facts.
Men
Age
Facts
The Pretensions Of Final Truth Are Always Partlyan Effort To Obscure A Darkly Felt Consciousness Of The Limits Of Human Knowledge.
Effort
Finals
Limits
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.
Laughter
Facts
Intimate
Whenever A Church Does Anything For Its Own Group, It Has That Right.
Church
Groups
Doe
The Dimension Of Depth In The Consciousness Of Religion Creates The Tension Between What Is And What Ought To Be. It Bends The Bow From Which Every Arrow Of Moral Action Flies.
Arrows
Religion
Depth
The Tendency To Claim God As An Ally For Our Partisan Value And Ends Is The Source Of All Religious Fanaticism.
Wisdom
Religious
Allies
There Was A Time When I Had All The Answers. My Real Growth Began When I Discovered That The Questions To Which I Had The Answers Were Not The Important Questions.
Real
Growth
Important
The Separation Of Church And State Is Necessary Partly Because If Religion Is Good Then The State Shouldn't Interfere With The Religious Vision Or With The Religious Prophet.
Religious
Vision
Church
One Of The Fundamental Points About Religious Humility Is You Say You Don't Know About The Ultimate Judgment. It's Beyond Your Judgment. And If You Equate God's Judgment With Your Judgment, You Have A Wrong Religion.
Religious
Humility
Fundamentals
The Individual Or The Group Which Organizes Any Society, However Social Its Intentions Or Pretensions, Arrogates An Inordinate Portion Of Social Privilege To Itself.
Groups
Privilege
Intention
There Are Evidently Limits To The Achievements Of Science; And There Are Irresolvable Contradictions Both Between Prosperity And Virtue, And Between Happiness And ``the Good Life,'' Which Had Not Been Anticipated In Our Philosophy.
Good Life
Philosophy
Achievement
All Men Who Live With Any Degree Of Serenity Live By Some Assurance Of Grace.
Men
Serenity
Grace
Life Has No Meaning Except In Terms Of Responsibility.
Life
Responsibility
Term
Perhaps The Most Significant Moral Characteristic Of A Nation Is Its Hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy
Politics
Moral
The History Of Mankind Is A Perennial Tragedy; For The Highest Ideals Which The Individual May Project Are Ideals Which He Can Never Realize In Social And Collective Terms.
Tragedy
May
Realizing
The Measure Of Our Rationality Determines The Degree Of Vividness With Which We Appreciate The Needs Of Other Life, The Extent To Which We Become Conscious Of The Real Character Of Our Own Motives And Impulses, The Ability To Harmonize Conflicting Impulses In Our Own Life And In Society, And The Capacity To Choose Adequate Means For Approved Ends.
Real
Character
Mean
Goodness, Armed With Power, Is Corrupted; And Pure Love Without Power Is Destroyed.
Love
Power
Goodness
Religion Mustn't Interfere With The State - So One Of The Basic Democratic Principles As We Know It In America Is The Separation Of Church And State.
America
Church
Principles
Nationalism: One Of The Effective Ways In Which The Modern Man Escapes Life's Ethical Problems.
Men
Way
Problem
The Communists Do Have A God, The Dialectic Of History, Which Guarantees Everything That They're Going To Do And Guarantees Them Victory; That's Why They're Fanatic.
Victory
Guarantees
Communist
All Men Are Naturally Included To Obscure The Morally Ambiguous Element In Their Political Cause By Investing It With Religious Sanctity.
Religious
Men
Political
Religion, Declares The Modern Man, Is Consciousness Of Our Highest Social Values. Nothing Could Be Further From The Truth. True Religion Is A Profound Uneasiness About Our Highest Social Values.
Men
Social Values
Profound
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.
Dream
Drama
Moving
The Fanatic Is Dangerous.
Dangerous
Fanatics
Family Life Is Too Intimate To Be Preserved By The Spirit Of Justice. It Can Only Be Sustained By A Spirit Of Love Which Goes Beyond Justice. Justice Requires That We Carefully Weigh Rights And Privileges And Assure That Each Member Of A Community Receives His Due Share. Love Does Not Weigh Rights And Privileges Too Carefully Because It Prompts Each To Bear The Burden Of The Other.
Life
Rights
Justice
The Prophet Himself Stands Under The Judgment Which He Preaches. If He Does Not Know That, He Is A False Prophet.
Doe
Judgment
Prophet
Marxism Was The Social Creed And The Social Cry Of Those Classes Who Knew By Their Miseries That The Creed Of The Liberal Optimists Was S Snare And A Delusion... Liberalism And Marxism Share A Common Illusion Of The "children Of Light." Neither Understands Property As A Form Of Power Which Can Be Used In Either Its Individual Or Its Social Form As An Instrument Of Particular Interest Against The General Interest.
Wisdom
Children
Light
Faith Is The Final Triumph Over Incongruity, The Final Assertion Of The Meaningfulness Of Existence.
Triumph
Finals
Existence
God, Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change, The Courage To Change The Things I Can, And The Wisdom To Know The Difference. Grant Me The Patience With Changes That Take Time, Appreciation Of All That I Have, Tolerance Of Those With Different Struggles, And The Strength To Get Up And Try Again, One Day At A Time.
Appreciation
Struggle
Differences
Our Dreams Of A Pure Virtue Are Dissolved In A Situation In Which It Is Possible To Exercise The Virtue Of Responsibility Toward A Community Of Nations Only By Courting The Prospective Guilt Of The Atomic Bomb.
Dream
Responsibility
Exercise
Civilization Depends Upon The Vigorous Pursuit Of The Highest Values By People Who Are Intelligent Enough To Know That Their Values Are Qualified By Their Interests And Corrupted By Their Prejudices.
Intelligent
Civilization
People
Reason Is Not The Sole Basis Of Moral Virtue In Man. His Social Impulses Are More Deeply Rooted Than His Rational Life.
Men
Moral
Virtue
I Think I Should Know How To Educate A Boy, But Not A Girl; I Should Be In Danger Of Making Her Too Learned.
Girl
Education
Boys
Even As Rigorous A Determinist As Karl Marx, Who At Times Described The Social Behaviour Of The Bourgeoisie In Terms Which Suggested A Problem In Social Physics, Could Subject It At Other Times To A Withering Scorn Which Only The Presupposition Of Moral Responsibility Could Justify.
Responsibility
Bourgeoisie
Behaviour
I Think I Have One Answer, That Is Partly Religious And Partly Secular; And That Is To Say, We Ought To At Least Recognize That We And The Russians Are In A Common Predicament. That Would Be Religious In The Sense, "judge Not Lest You Be Judged."
Religious
Thinking
Judging
The Society In Which Each Man Lives Is At Once The Basis For, And The Nemesis Of, That Fulness Of Life Which Each Man Seeks.
Men
Life Is
Bases
That Is The Truth About Man - That He Has A Curious Kind Of Dignity, But Also A Curious Kind Of Misery, And That These Forms Of Agnosticism Don't Understand.
Men
Misery
Dignity
I Think There Is And Ultimate Answer In A True Religious Faith, But It Doesn't Give You Any Immediate Answers, It Doesn't.
Religious
Thinking
Giving
What Is Funny About Us Is Precisely That We Take Ourselves Too Seriously.
Happiness
Laughter
Joy
There Must Be A Realm Of Truth Beyond Political Competence, That's Why There Must Be A Separation Of Churches, But If Religion Is Bad And A Bad Religion Is One That Gives An Ultimate Sanctity To Some Particular Cause.
Giving
Political
Church
Not Only In America But In Germany, In France Since The War, In Germany After The First World War, The Germany Of Adenauer, These Are The Creative Relationships Of Catholicism To A Free Society That The Average American Doesn't Fully Appreciate.
War
Average
America
Love Is The Motive, But Justice Is The Instrument.
Love Is
Justice
Instruments
Democracy Is Finding Proximate Solutions To Insoluble Problems.
Democracy
Problem
Findings
Rationalism Belongs To The Cool Observer. But Because Of The Stupidity Of The Average Person, They Follow Not Reason, But Faith. This Naïve Faith, Requires Necessary Illusions And Emotionally Potent Oversimplifications, Which Are Provided By The Myth Maker To Keep The Ordinary Person On Course.
Average
Stupidity
Politics
Perhapsthemost Sublimeinsights Ofthejewishprophets And The Christian Gospel Is The Knowledge That Since Perfection Is Love, The Apprehension Of Perfection Is At Once The Means Of Seeing One's Imperfections And The Consoling Assurance Of Grace Which Makes This Realization Bearable. This Ultimate Paradox Of High Religion Is Not An Invention Of Theologians Or Priests. It Is Constantly Validated By The Most Searching Experiences Of Life.
Christian
Mean
Perfection
That Is One Of The Flagrant Misconceptions About Catholicism In America That If A Man Is A Catholic He Owes Allegiance To What They Say A Foreign Sovereign, Or Something Like That.
Men
America
Catholic
Freedom Is Necessary For Two Reasons. It's Necessary For The Individual, Because The Individual, No Matter How Good The Society Is, Every Individual Has Hopes, Fears, Ambitions, Creative Urges, That Transcend The Purposes Of His Society. Therefore We Have A Long History Of Freedom, Where People Try To Extricate Themselves From Tyranny For The Sake Of Art, For The Sake Of Science, For The Sake Of Religion, For The Sake Of The Conscience Of The Individual - This Freedom Is Necessary For The Individual.
Art
Ambition
Two
We Have, On The Whole, More Liberty And Less Equality Than Russia Has. Russia Has Less Liberty And More Equality. Whether Democracy Should Be Defined Primarily In Terms Of Liberty Or Equality Is A Source Of Unending Debate.
Russia
Democracy
Liberty
The Idea That The Profits Of Capital Are Really The Rewards Of A Just Society For The Foresight And Thrift Of Those Who Sacrificed The Immediate Pleasures Of Spending In Order That Society Might Have Productive Capital, Had A Certain Validity In The Early Days Of Capitalism, When Productive Enterprise Was Frequently Initiated Through Capital Saved Out Of Modest Incomes.
Order
Ideas
Income
To Be Religious Is Not To Feel, But To Be.
Religious
Feels
Man Is Always Worse Than Most People Suspect, But Also Generally Better Than Most People Dream.
Dream
Men
People
Nothing That Is Worth Doing Can Be Achieved In A Lifetime; Therefore We Must Be Saved By Hope.
Success
Accomplishment
Lifetime
When A Church Reaches Up Beyond Its Group And Tries To Enforce Its Standards Upon A Society That Doesn't Accept These Standards, And Perhaps For Good Reason, Perhaps For Bad Reason, But Anyway This Is The Problem We Face In Pluralistic Society, That Not Necessarily Every Standard That Every Church Tries To Enforce Upon The Society Is From The Society's Standpoint A Good Standard.
Church
Trying
Groups
If We Survive Danger It Steels Our Courage More Than Anything Else.
Courage
Survival
Steel
The Fence And The Boundary Line Are The Symbols Of The Spirit Of Justice. They Set The Limits Upon Each Man's Interest To Prevent One From Taking Advantage Of The Other.
Men
Justice
Lines
The Nuclear Age Has Refuted The Idea Of Progress And Marxism Has Been Refuted By Stalinism. Therefore People Have Returned To The Historic Religion.
Ideas
People
Age
All Social Cooperation On A Larger Scale Than The Most Intimate Social Group Requires A Measure Of Coercion.
Groups
Coercion
Cooperation
History May Defeat The Christ But It Nevertheless Points To Him As The Law Of Life.
Law
History
May
As Racial, Economic And National Groups, They Take For Themselves, Whatever Their Power Can Command.
Groups
Economic
Command
It Is Significant That It Is As Difficult To Get Charity Out Of Piety As To Get Reasonableness Out Of Rationalism.
Charity
Significant
Difficult
We Protestants Ought To Humbly Confess That The Theater And The Sports Have Done More For Race Amity, For Race Understanding Than, On The Whole, The Protestant Church In Certain Type, In Certain Parts Of The Nation.
Sports
Race
Understanding
Democracies Are Indeed Slow To Make War, But Once Embarked Upon A Martial Venture Are Equally Slow To Make Peace And Reluctant To Make A Tolerable, Rather Than A Vindictive, Peace.
War
Democracy
Venture
We Don't Properly Discriminate. We Never Discriminate Properly When We're Dealing With Another Group And One Of The Big Problems About Religion Is That Religious People Don't Know That They Are Probably As Flagrant In These Misjudgments As Irreligious People.
Religious
People
Groups
Now We're Living In A Nuclear Age, And The Science That Was Supposed To Be Automatically For Human Welfare Has Become A Nuclear - A Science That Gives Us Nuclear Weapons. This Is The Ironic Character Of Human History, And Of Human Existence, Which I Can Only Explain, If I Say So, In Biblical Terms. Now I Don't Mean By This Reason That I Will Accept Every Interpretation Of Christianity That's Derived From The Bible As Many People Wouldn't Accept My Interpretation. But That's What It Means For Me.
Character
Mean
Biblical
A Wise Architect Observed That You Could Break The Laws Of Architec75tural Art Provided You Had Mastered Them First. That Would Apply To Religion As Well As To Art. Ignorance Of The Past Does Not Guarantee Freedom From Its Imperfections.
Wise
Art
Ignorance
I Think That The Christian Faith Is Right As Against Simple Forms Of Secularism. That It Believes That There Is In Man A Radical Freedom, And This Freedom Is Creative But It Is Also Destructive. And There's Nothing That Prevents This From Being Both Creative And Destructive.
Christian
Believe
Simple
God, Give Us Grace To Accept With Serenity The Things That Cannot Be Changed, Courage To Change The Things Which Should Be Changed, And The Wisdom To Distinguish The One From The Other. This Prayer Was First Printed In A Monthly Bulletin Of The Federal Council Of Churches And Has Become Enormously Popular. It Has Been Circulated In Millions Of Copies.
Change
Wisdom
Prayer
The Stupidity Of The Average Man Will Permit The Oligarch, Whether Economic Or Political, To Hide His Real Purposes From The Scrutiny Of His Fellows And To Withdraw His Activities From Effective Control. Since It Is Impossible To Count On Enough Moral Goodwill Among Those Who Possess Irresponsible Power To Sacrifice It For The Good Of The Whole, It Must Be Destroyed By Coercive Methods And These Will Always Run The Peril Of Introducing New Forms Of Injustice In Place Of Those Abolished.
Running
Real
Sacrifice
Man Is Both Strong And Weak, Both Free And Bound, Both Blind And Far-seeing. He Stands At The Juncture Of Nature And Spirit; And Is Involved In Both Freedom And Necessity.
Strong
Men
Spirit
Men Have Never Been Individually Self-sufficient.
Teamwork
Men
Self
All This Talk About Atheistic Materialism And God-fearing American I Think Is Beside The Point; It's A Rather Vapid Form Of Religion.
Thinking
Vapid
Materialism
Since Inequalities Of Privilege Are Greater Than Could Possibly Be Defended Rationally, The Intelligence Of Privileged Groups Is Usually Applied To The Task Of Inventing Specious Proofs For The Theory That Universal Values Spring From, And That General Interests Are Served By, The Special Privileges Which They Hold.
Spring
Special
Groups
God Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change; Courage To Change The Things I Can; And Wisdom To Know The Difference. Living One Day At A Time; Enjoying One Moment At A Time; Accepting Hardships As The Pathway To Peace; Taking, As He Did, This Sinful World As It Is, Not As I Would Have It; Trusting That He Will Make All Things Right If I Surrender To His Will; That I May Be Reasonably Happy In This Life And Supremely Happy With Him Forever In The Next. Amen.
Inspirational
Courage
Differences
Forgiveness Is The Final Form Of Love.
Love
Forgiveness
Philosophical
Toleration Of People Who Differ In Convictions And Habits Requires A Residual Awareness Of The Complexity Of Truth And The Possibility Of Opposing View Having Some Light On One Or The Other Facet Of A Many-sided Truth.
Equality
Light
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