Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes About Democracy

Quotes about: Democracy

• Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Freedom, Integrity, Adversity

  The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness foreword (1944)

• 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.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Relative Value, Confusion, Political

• It is the evil in man that makes democracy necessary, and man's belief in justice that makes democracy possible.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Men, Evil, Justice

• 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.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  War, Democracy, Venture

• Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Democracy, Problem, Findings

• For democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions for insoluble problems.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Democracy, Problem, Method

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2010). “The Irony of American History”, p.13, University of Chicago Press

• A republic properly understood is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Justice, Democracy, Republic

• Human Beings are just good enough to make democracy possible...just bad enough to make it neccessary.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Democracy, Good Enough, Humans

• 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.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Russia, Democracy, Liberty

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