"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."

Peace

Create & Download Quote Image

Select Template

Optimized for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Insight & Reflection

This reflection on peace by Reinhold Niebuhr resonates across generations. It highlights a fundamental truth about human nature: our continuous search for meaning in peace is what ultimately defines our character and our path forward.

About Reinhold Niebuhr

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American Mainline Protestant theologian in the Reformed tradition, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man.

More quotes by Reinhold Niebuhr →
Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the Quotes Archive Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

More by Reinhold Niebuhr

"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."

Read more →

"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."

Read more →

"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."

Read more →

"Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history therefore we must be saved by faith."

Read more →

More about Peace

"The moral compass points true only when freed from the magnetism of personal gain. For where clarity resides, peace inevitably follows — an essential principle for the reflective life."

Read more →

"The ocean of adversity cannot drown the spirit that resolves to stay afloat. For where clarity resides, peace inevitably follows — an essential principle for the reflective life."

Read more →

"It is a quiet truth that serenity begins the moment you cease demanding that the external world conform."

Read more →

"It is a timeless truth that a quiet mind perceives the subtle truths that noisy ambitions constantly drown out — an essential principle for the reflective life."

Read more →
View all Peace quotes →