text:
Groundhog Day (film)

Groundhog Day is a 1993 film about a weather man doomed to repeat the same day over and over again.
 * Directed by Harold Ramis. Written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis.

He's having the worst day of his life... over, and over again.

Phil Connors

 * This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.
 * I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over?
 * Once again, the eyes of the nation have turned here to this... tiny village in western Pennsylvania. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There is no way this winter is ever going to end, as long as this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don't see any other way out. He's got to be stopped. And I have to stop him.
 * This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off, waiting to worship a rat. What a hype! Groundhog Day used to mean something in this town. They used to pull the hog out and they used to eat it. You're hypocrites! All of you!
 * You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.
 * When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.
 * Yeah, sport, I know there's a blizzard. When are the long-distance lines gonna be repaired? Well, what if there is no tomorrow?! There wasn’t one today! Hello? [dial tone] Hello?! [hangs up the phone. He breaks a pencil and places one half in front of the clock and the other on top]

Rita Hanson

 * Sometimes I wish I had a thousand lifetimes. I don't know, Phil. Maybe it's not a curse. Just depends on how you look at it.

Dialogue

 * D.J. #1: Okay, campers, rise and shine and don't forget your booties, 'cause it's cold out there today!
 * D.J. #2: It's cold out there every day! What is this, Miami Beach?
 * D.J. #1: Not hardly. And you know, you can expect hazardous travel later today with that, you know, that, uh, that blizzard thing.
 * D.J. #2: That blizzard - thing. That blizzard - thing. Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a "big blizzard thing!"
 * D.J. #1: Yessss, they are. But you know, there's another reason why today is especially exciting.
 * D.J. #2: Especially cold!
 * D.J. #1: Especially cold, okay, but the big question on everybody's lips...
 * D.J. #2: On their chapped lips...
 * D.J. #1: On their chapped lips, right: Do ya think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow?
 * D.J. #2: Punxsutawney Phil!
 * D.J. #1: That's right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's...
 * D.J. #1, D.J. #2: [in unison] GROUNDHOG DAAAY!

 * Ned: Phil? Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you!
 * Phil: Hi, how are you doing? Thanks for watching.
 * Ned: Hey, hey! Now don't you tell me you don't remember me 'cause I sure as heckfire remember you!
 * Phil: Not a chance.
 * Ned: Ned Ryerson! "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? Come on, buddy, Case Western High! Ned Ryerson — I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing! Ned Ryerson — got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing again! Ned Ryerson — I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple of times until you told me not to anymore? Well?
 * Phil: Ned Ryerson?
 * Ned: Bing!
 * Phil: Bing! So did you turn pro with that whole belly-button thing Ned or—
 * Ned: No, Phil, I sell insurance.
 * Phil: What a shock!
 * Ned: Do you have life insurance? Because if you do you could always use a little more. Am I right or am I right or am I right? Right? Right?
 * Phil: Ned, I'd love to stand here and talk with you... but I'm not going to. See you.
 * Ned: [laughs] That's okay! I'll walk with you! See, whenever I see an opportunity, I charge it like a bull. "Ned the Bull", that's me now. You know, I have friends who live and die by the actuarial tables and I say, "Hey! It's all one big crap-shoot anywho!" Tell me, have you ever heard of single premium life because I think that could really be the ticket for you. Oh, God! It is so good to see you! Tell me, what are you doing for dinner?
 * Phil: Something else. It's been great seeing you, "Needlehead". Take care.
 * [Phil steps off the curb into a deep, watery puddle. Ned laughs obnoxiously]
 * Ned: Whoa-ho-ho! Watch out for that first step! It's a doozy!

 * Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?
 * Ralph: That about sums it up for me.

 * Phil: What if there were no tomorrow?
 * Gus: No tomorrow? That would mean there would be no consequences. There would be no hangovers. We could do whatever we wanted!
 * Phil: That's true. We could do whatever we want.

 * Phil: It’s the same thing your whole life. “Clean up your room! Stand up straight! Pick up your feet! Take it like a man! Be nice to your sister! Don’t mix beer and wine, ever! Oh yeah, don’t drive on the railway tracks!”
 * Gus: [sobering up] Well, Phil, that’s one I happen to agree with.
 * Phil: [driving into the rail tracks] I don’t know, Gus… Sometimes, you just have to take the big chances.
 * [A train approaches]
 * Phil: I'm betting he’s going to swerve first…

 * Rita: I'm sorry? What was that again?
 * Phil: I'm a god.
 * Rita: You're God.
 * Phil: I'm a god — I'm not the God, I don't think.
 * Rita: Because you survived a car wreck?
 * Phil: I didn't just survive a wreck; I wasn't just blown up yesterday. I have been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted and burned.
 * Rita: Oh, really?
 * Phil: [nods] Every morning I wake up without a scratch on me, not a dent in the fender: I am an immortal.
 * Doris: Special today is blueberry waffles—
 * Rita: Why are you telling me this?
 * Phil: Because I want you to believe in me.
 * Rita: You're not a god. You can take my word for it; this is 12 years of Catholic school talkin'.
 * Phil: How do you know I'm not a god? How do you know?
 * Rita: Because it's not possible!

 * Rita: There is something so familiar about this. Do you ever have déjà vu?
 * Phil: Didn't you just ask me that?

 * Rita: What about me, Phil? Do you know me too?
 * Phil: I know all about you. You like producing, but you hope for more than Channel 9 Pittsburgh.
 * Rita: Well, everyone knows that!
 * Phil: You like boats, but not the ocean. You go to a lake in summer with your family up in the mountains.  There's a long wooden dock and a boathouse with boards missing from the roof, and a place you used to crawl underneath to be alone.  You're a sucker for French poetry and rhinestones.  You're very generous.  You're kind to strangers and children, and when you stand in the snow you look like an angel.
 * Rita: How are you doing this?
 * Phil: I told you. I wake up every day, right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it's always February 2nd, and there's nothing I can do about it.

 * [Phil is carving a snow sculpture while Rita sits posing and freezing.]
 * Rita: Why can't I see it?
 * Phil: I just want to give you your money's worth. You paid top dollar for me.
 * Rita: Well... I think you were a bargain.
 * Phil: It's sweet of you to say. You're probably right.

 * [Phil plays a piece on the piano rather well]
 * Piano teacher: Not bad, Mr. Connors! You say this is your first lesson?
 * Phil: Yes, but my father was a piano mover, so...

 * Phil: [talking to a sleeping Rita] I think you're the kindest, sweetest, prettiest person I've ever met in my life. I've never seen anyone that's nicer to people than you are. The first time I saw you... something happened to me. I never told you but... I knew that I wanted to hold you as hard as I could. I don't deserve someone like you. But if I ever could, I swear I would love you for the rest of my life.
 * Rita: [muttering in her sleep] Did you say something?
 * Phil: Good night.

 * Rita: I’m amazed. And I’m not easily amazed.
 * Phil: About what?
 * Rita: About how you can start a day with one kind of expectation and end up so completely different.
 * Phil: Well, do you like how the day is turning out?
 * Rita: Very much. You couldn’t plan a day like this.
 * Phil: Well, you can. It just takes an awful lot of work.

 * Phil: Something is... different.
 * Rita: Good or bad?
 * Phil: Anything different is good. But this could be real good. [kisses Rita] Why are you here?
 * Rita: I bought you. I own you.
 * Phil: But why are you still here?
 * Rita: You said, "Stay," so I stayed.
 * Phil: I said, "Stay," so you stayed? I can't even make a collie stay.

 * Phil: Do you know what today is?
 * Rita: No, what?
 * Phil: Today is tomorrow! It happened! You're here!
 * Rita: I'm here.
 * [Phil kisses Rita over and over, realizing that he has finally passed Groundhog Day]
 * Rita: [smiling] Oh Phil, why weren't you like this last night? You just fell asleep.
 * Phil: It was the end of a very long day.

Quotes about Groundhog Day

 * With so many movies, especially comedies, you can see the bones sticking out – you can see what they're trying to do. But Groundhog Day is such a clever, wonderful ride that you don't notice the joins. It's rare for a comedy to be funny and profound but also popular. Films such as Groundhog Day and Back to the Future sold a lot of popcorn, but they were insanely smart too. That's very inspiring when you're sitting there trying to write a comedy screenplay. Groundhog Day is living proof that it's possible to create intelligent comedy that still has a broad appeal.
 * Peter Baynham, as quoted in "Groundhog Day: the perfect comedy, for ever" in The Guardian (7 February 2013)

 * Groundhog Day is now associated in the minds of many spiritual seekers with redemption, rebirth and the process of moving to a higher plane. Professor Angela Zito, the co-director of the Centre for Religion and Media at New York University, told me that Groundhog Day illustrated the Buddhist notion of samsara, the continuing cycle of rebirth that individuals try to escape. In the older form of Buddhist belief, she said, no one can escape to nirvana unless they work hard and lead a very good life. But in the teachings of the slightly more recently established Mahayana Buddhism, no one can escape samsara until everyone else does. "That's why you have what are called bodhisattvas who reach the brink of nirvana and come back for others," she said. "The Dalai Lama is considered one living bodhisattva, but Bill Murray could also be one."
 * Andrew Buncombe, in "Is This the Greatest Story Ever Told? ; A 1993 Romantic Comedy Starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell Is Being Hailed by Religious Leaders as the Most Spiritual Film of All Time." in The Independent ( 2 February 2004)

 * Formula comedies are a dime a dozen. Those based on an original idea are more rare, and "Groundhog Day," apart from everything else, is a demonstration of the way time can sometimes give us a break. Just because we're born as SOBs doesn't mean we have to live that way.
 * Roger Ebert, in Groundhog Day in Chicago Sun-Times (12 February 1993)

 *  Groundhog Day is a film that finds its note and purpose so precisely that its genius may not be immediately noticeable. It unfolds so inevitably, is so entertaining, so apparently effortless, that you have to stand back and slap yourself before you see how good it really is. Certainly I underrated it in my original review; I enjoyed it so easily that I was seduced into cheerful moderation. But there are a few films, and this is one of them, that burrow into our memories and become reference points. When you find yourself needing the phrase This is like "Groundhog Day" to explain how you feel, a movie has accomplished something.
 * Roger Ebert, in Groundhog Day (1993) in Chicago Sun-Times (30 January 2005)

 * A long article in the British newspaper the Independent says "Groundhog Day" is "hailed by religious leaders as the most spiritual film of all time." Perhaps not all religious leaders have seen anything by Bergman, Bresson, Ozu and Dreyer, but never mind: They have a point, even about a film where the deepest theological observation is, "Maybe God has just been around a long time and knows everything." What amazes me about the movie is that Murray and Ramis get away with it. They never lose their nerve. Phil undergoes his transformation but never loses his edge. He becomes a better Phil, not a different Phil. The movie doesn't get all soppy at the end. There is the dark period when he tries to kill himself, the reckless period when he crashes his car because he knows it doesn't matter, the times of despair. We see that life is like that. Tomorrow will come, and whether or not it is always Feb. 2, all we can do about it is be the best person we know how to be. The good news is that we can learn to be better people. There is a moment when Phil tells Rita, "When you stand in the snow, you look like an angel." The point is not that he has come to love Rita. It is that he has learned to see the angel.
 * Roger Ebert, in Groundhog Day (1993) in Chicago Sun-Times (30 January 2005)

 *  Groundhog Day, the 1993 film Ramis directed and co-wrote with Danny Rubin, became an underground Buddhist classic, despite the fact that the words “Buddhist” or “Buddha” never appear in the script, or that neither Ramis nor Rubin intended it to be Buddhist or Christian or Jewish or any of the other denominations that say it speaks to them and for them. And despite the fact that the film is, after all, a comedy. A comedic take on Buddhism? That alone could earn merit points these days when many Buddhist meditators and scholars seem to have forgotten the light touch of numerous teachers over the centuries.
 * Perry Garfinkel, in "And If He Sees His Shadow…" in Shambhala Sun (July 2009)

 * Phil says, “I’ve killed myself so many times, I don’t even exist anymore.” “Now,” Ramis comments, “Phil is ready for change.” And, typical of a Ramis film, change means Phil becomes the good guy, the bodhisattva who performs selfless acts of kindness, not manipulatively, but for their own sake. This, naturally, wins him the love of the whole town, and, naturally, of Rita. And not surprisingly, he comes to love himself. “No matter what happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life,” Phil tells Rita, “I’m happy now because I love you.”  Sure, it's a Hollywood ending. But Ramis would have it no other way. In his commentary on the fifteenth anniversary DVD, he confessed: “I’m such a sap. I actually believe in this stuff. The movie is quite sincere.”
 * Perry Garfinkel, in "And If He Sees His Shadow…" in Shambhala Sun (July 2009)

 * Ramis gets a kick out of the fact that many religious groups claim the film is for and about their particular sect. I suspect Ramis and the Buddha would agree: 'The more, the merrier."  Ramis himself is not a Buddhist, does not meditate but is well read on the principles and consciously practices the simple tenets that weatherman Phil Connors comes to embody (picture a bald Bill Murray in saffron robes). Ramis, I learned from hanging out with him and interviewing many around him, is somewhere between a mensch (a really good guy) and a boddhisatva (a really good guy whose mission is to help other people become really good guys).
 * Perry Garfinkel in "The Groundhog Day Buddhism Sutra" The Huffington Post (2 February 2009)

 * I believe Groundhog Day is a Buddhist movie because of this "transformation" of the Bill Murray character. He becomes, as we would say in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, "a true human being," as opposed to the self-centered and arrogant person he started out as. What is important to note is that the transformation occurs not through the action of some external supreme being, or through the action of the Bill Murray character himself (i.e., through his own self-power). It occurs because he encounters a difficulty in his life that is greater than himself. In Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, we are taught that, even if we are aware that our ego-self is the problem, we cannot simply decide to become a "good person." The self cannot correct itself. What is required is a power much greater than the self, which essentially "negates" or "challenges" the self. In Buddhism, we call this power the Dharma.
 * Peter Hata, in "Groundhog Day" at The Living Dharma Website

 * What's so remarkable about it ... is that normally when you're writing a screenplay you try to avoid repetition. And that's the whole thing here, it's built on repetition. That's so bold. The way they get through it is to short-circuit everything, so just when you think something is going to happen that you've seen before, the film gets to it before you and changes or abbreviates it in some way. I saw it when it came out and it just took my breath away.
 * Terry Jones, as quoted in "Groundhog Day: the perfect comedy, for ever" in The Guardian (7 February 2013)

 * Since its debut a decade ago, the film has become a curious favorite of religious leaders of many faiths, who all see in Groundhog Day a reflection of their own spiritual messages. ... Harold Ramis, the director of the film and one of its writers, said last week that since it came out he has heard from Jesuit priests, rabbis and Buddhists, and that the letters keep coming. "At first I would get mail saying, 'Oh, you must be a Christian, because the movie so beautifully expresses Christian belief,' " Mr. Ramis said during a conversation on his mobile phone as he was walking the streets of Los Angeles. "Then rabbis started calling from all over, saying they were preaching the film as their next sermon. And the Buddhists! Well, I knew they loved it, because my mother-in-law has lived in a Buddhist meditation center for 30 years and my wife lived there for 5 years." ... Angela Zito, a co-director of the Center for Religion and Media at New York University, screens the film for students in her Buddhism class. She said that Groundhog Day perfectly illustrates the Buddhist notion of samsara, the continuing cycle of rebirth that Buddhists regard as suffering that humans must try to escape ...Groundhog Day, Dr. Zito said, is a cinematic version of the teachings in Mahayana Buddhism, known as "the greater vehicle." "In Mahayana," she said, "nobody ever imagines they are going to escape samsara until everybody else does. That is why you have bodhisattvas, who reach the brink of nirvana, and stop and come back and save the rest of us. Bill Murray is the bodhisattva. He is not going to abandon the world. On the contrary, he is released back into the world to save it."
 * Alex Kuczynski, in "Groundhog Almighty" in The New York Times (7 December 2003)

 * Some theologians see much less Buddhism in the story than Judaism. Dr. Niles Goldstein... said he finds Jewish resonance in the fact that Mr. Murray's character is rewarded by being returned to earth to perform more mitzvahs — good deeds — rather than gaining a place in heaven, which is the Christian reward, or achieving nirvana, the Buddhist reward. He has not used the movie as an allegory for his congregation, he said, but he might now.  "The movie tells us, as Judaism does, that the work doesn't end until the world has been perfected," Rabbi Goldstein said.
 * Alex Kuczynski, in "Groundhog Almighty" in The New York Times (7 December 2003)

 * Michael Bronski, a film critic for The Forward who teaches a course in Jewish film history at Dartmouth, said he sees strong elements of not only Jewish but also Christian theology. "The groundhog is clearly the resurrected Christ, the ever hopeful renewal of life at springtime, at a time of pagan-Christian holidays," he said, adding: "And when I say that the groundhog is Jesus, I say that with great respect."... Yogis, Jesuits and psychoanalytic practitioners have told Mr. Ramis that they feel a strong spiritual kinship with the message they see in the film. In the case of the psychoanalysts, he said, "it's the 'we keep reliving the same old patterns over and over again until we gain the right to free ourselves' thing." And in Washington, a branch of the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, has used the movie to instruct members in its belief that the spiritual self is not allowed to move to higher levels until it learns from past mistakes. ... Some Wiccans also point to the film as particularly important to their beliefs, because Groundhog Day — the day itself — is one of the four "greater sabbats" that divide the year at the midpoints between the solstices and equinoxes. Several Web sites devoted to Wicca call the movie required viewing.
 * Alex Kuczynski, in "Groundhog Almighty" in The New York Times (7 December 2003)]

 * Mr. Murray is back in top form with a clever, varied role that draws upon the full range of his talents. As in Scrooged, he makes a transition from supreme cynic to nice guy, and this time he does so with particularly good grace. Half Capra and half Kafka, the story of Groundhog Day presents golden opportunities, particularly in the gently romantic scenes with Ms. MacDowell. Mr. Murray is as believable and appealing at these moments as he is flinging insults. Ms. MacDowell, a warm comic presence and a thorough delight, plays a modern working woman while also reminding viewers that this is at heart a fairy tale. As Phil tries one desperate tactic after another, fairy tale fans will be way ahead of him, knowing what it takes to break a spell.
 * Janet Maslin, in "Groundhog Day (1993)" in The New York Times (12 February 1993)

 * It always seemed ironic to me that it didn't lead people to recognize the commonality of all their points of view, but rather, "This must be about us and only us."
 * Harold Ramis, as quoted in "And If He Sees His Shadow…" in Shambhala Sun (July 2009)

 * Ever since the movie "Groundhog Day" came out in the early '90s, many people, especially Buddhists, feel that the movie holds some kind of profound, existential message concerning spiritual practice and the spiritual path. ... I doubt that the producers of the movie ever intended their lighthearted comedy to become a lesson in Buddhist teaching, but so it goes.
 * Lewis Richmond in "Buddhism and Groundhog Day" in The Huffington Post (2 February 2012)

 * There have been a lot of messing-with-time movies where you can't help but see the influence of Groundhog Day ... Every time it happens, my friends say: "You just got ripped off. I hope they paid you." I'm, like: "No, it's an homage." It's not like I'm being erased. It's an honour. I always thought the premise could be explored a million different ways. I welcome all of these explorations; it's fun for me because I like to see how other people play with the idea. Basically it shows how ubiquitous it's become in the culture. It's getting harder and harder now to find anyone who hasn't seen it.
 * Danny Rubin, as quoted in "Groundhog Day: the perfect comedy, for ever" in The Guardian (7 February 2013)

 * It's perfect in its structure, and its ideas are so profound. Very much like Silver Linings Playbook, it's about someone fighting their demons using all that humble, difficult, baby-steps hard work that it takes, but doing it in such a hilarious way. It shows that until you wake up and get things right, you're gonna live that stuff until you die: the same emotional prison every day. Phil has to go through every incarnation of what he thinks love is until he really gets it.
 * David O. Russell, as quoted in "Groundhog Day: the perfect comedy, for ever" in The Guardian (7 February 2013)

 * All those films reinvent structure and create a new conceptual framework that makes you understand them ... They share an almost surrealistic vision, and they pose philosophical questions. Groundhog Day is there primarily to entertain, but there are lots of really intelligent ideas in it. It makes me think of Deleuze and his thoughts on how change can arise from repetition. The film follows that to the letter. ... I thought straight away that it was a classic ... other generations will understand immediately what's so good about it. To me, it's a perfect film.
 * Gillian Wearing, on her all-time top 10 favorite films, as quoted in "Groundhog Day: the perfect comedy, for ever" in The Guardian (7 February 2013)

Cast

 * Bill Murray - Phil Connors
 * Andie MacDowell - Rita
 * Chris Elliott - Larry
 * Stephen Tobolowsky - Ned Ryerson
 * Brian Doyle-Murray - Buster Green
 * Marita Geraghty - Nancy Taylor
 * Angela Paton - Mrs. Lancaster
 * Rick Ducommun - Gus
 * Rick Overton - Ralph
 * Robin Duke - Doris, the Waitress

title: Groundhog Day (film)


text:
Romeo Must Die

Romeo Must Die (2000) is an American film, an adaptation loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. It stars Aaliyah, DMX and Jet Li.

Dave (Matthew Harrison)

 * Trust me babe, if I say there is caviar in the hills, You bring the crackers

Han Sing

 * Here's the deal, meatball: You let me go, I let you live.
 * You're not only one who knows some shit
 * Hey, brother... AMERICAN FOOTBALL!
 * For you, killing your son was like running a over a dog in the street. Just something in your way.
 * I'll let fate decide what to do with you. If the police don't get you, the other Chinese families will. Do what you will, Father, but this time, no one will go to prison for you.
 * I can't hit a girl.
 * People don't get soft in prison.
 * Great country. Free cars.

Trish O'Day

 * Look, I don't know how it is in China, but in America, if a girl is kicking your ass you do not have to be a gentleman.
 * I'd have to see that.
 * Yeah, well dead giveaway. Besides, you drive like crap
 * Do I know you?
 * Right, right. What's your name again? Something starts with an M...
 * Moron.
 * So, Ahkbar, tell me, is it true what they say about Hong Kong?
 * You missed me? I'm gonna miss you when my father finds out you're here.

Po Sing

 * I can take care of myself.

Maurice

 * Hey Dimsum, You's a real funny man.
 * Name's Maurice....Bitch!
 * Trish, I'm gonna find your Aaliyah-looking ass, I know where you work at!
 * Where my drink, man?
 * Some you win;.....and Dim Sum, You Lose...

Silk

 * Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
 * Like I told your punk ass before: I ain't selling shit.

Mac

 * Sorry, Romeo, but you gotta die.
 * Dang! That's some cold shit!

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Romeo Must Die


text:
Reinhold Niebuhr

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (21 June 1892 – 1 June 1971) was an American Protestant theologian most famous for his efforts to relate the Christian faith to the realities of politics and diplomacy. He is a crucial contributor to modern thinking about what a just war would be.

Quotes

 * Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
 * The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944)

 * But the sense of humour remains healthy only when it deals with immediate issues and faces the obvious and surface irrationalities. It must move toward faith or sink into despair when the ultimate issues are raised. That is why there is laughter in the vestibule of the temple, the echo of laughter in the temple itself, but only faith and prayer, and no laughter, in the holy of holies.

 * The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men.
 * As quoted in obituary '"Reinhold Niebuhr Is Dead; Protestant Theologian, 78" by Alden Whitman in The New York Times (2 June 1971)

(1932)

 * : A Study of Ethics and Politics, Charles Scribner's Sons (1932)

 * 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.
 * p.45

 * 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.
 * p.21

 * 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.
 * p.2

 * Reason tends to check selfish impulses and to grant the satisfaction of legitimate impulses in others.
 * p.29

 * 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.
 * pp. 27-28

 * 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.
 * p.3

 * Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life. Reason may extend and stabilise, but it does not create, the capacity to affirm other life than his own.
 * p.26

 * The will-to-live becomes the will-to-power.
 * p.1

 * The individual or the group which organizes any society, however social its intentions or pretensions, arrogates an inordinate portion of social privilege to itself.
 * pp.6-7

 * 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.
 * p.1

 * The hope that the internal enemies will all be destroyed and that the new society will create only men who will be in perfect accord with the collective will of society, and will not seek personal advantage in the social process, is romantic in its interpretation of the possibilities of human nature and in its mystical glorification of the anticipated automatic mutuality in the communist society. ...In all these prophecies pure sentimentality obscures the fact that there can never be a perfect mutuality of interest between individuals who perform different functions in society... Man will always be imaginative enough to enlarge his needs beyond minimum requirements and selfish enough to feel the pressure of his needs more than the needs of others. Every society will have to maintain methods of arbitrating conflicting needs to the end of history; and in that process those who are shrewder will gain some advantage over the simple, even if they should lack special instruments of power.
 * pp. 194-196

 * Human beings are endowed by nature with both selfish and unselfish impulses.
 * p.25

 * The extension of human sympathies [toward ever-larger communities] has... resulted in the creation of larger units of conflict without abolishing conflict. So civilization has become a device for delegating the vices of individuals to larger and larger communities.
 * p. 49

 * All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.
 * p.3

 * The inevitable hypocrisy, which is associated with the all the collective activities of the human race, springs chiefly from this source: that individuals have a moral code which makes the actions of collective man an outrage to their conscience. They therefore invent romantic and moral interpretations of the real facts, preferring to obscure rather than reveal the true character of their collective behavior. Sometimes they are as anxious to offer moral justifications for the brutalities from which they suffer as for those which they commit. The fact that the hypocrisy of man's group behavior... expresses itself not only in terms of self-justification but in terms of moral justification of human behavior in general, symbolizes one of the tragedies of the human spirit: its inability to conform its collective life to its individual ideals. As individuals, men believe they ought to love and serve each other and establish justice between each other. As racial, economic and national groups they take for themselves, whatever their power can command.
 * pp. 8-9

 * The naïve faith of the proletarian is the faith of the man of action. Rationality belongs to the cool observers. There is of course an element of illusion in the faith of the proletarian, as there is in all faith. But it is a necessary illusion, without which some truth is obscured. The inertia of society is so stubborn that no one will move against it, if he cannot believe that it can be more easily overcome than is actually the case.
 * p.221

Christianity and Power Politics (1936)

 * A Nazi social philosophy has been a covert presumption of the whole Oxford group enterprise from the very beginning. (Chapter 29: "Hitler and Buchman")
 * In the simple and decadent individualism of the Oxford group movement there is no understanding of the fact that the man of power is always to a certain degree an anti-Christ. "All power," said Lord Acton with cynical realism, "corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely." If the man of power were to take a message of absolute honesty and absolute love seriously he would lose his power, or would divest himself of it. This is not to imply that the world can get along without power and that it is not preferable that men of conscience should wield it rather than scoundrels. But if men of power had not only conscience but also something of the gospel's insight into the intricacies of social sin in the world, they would know that they could never extricate themselves completely from the sinfulness of power, even while they were wielding it ostensibly for the common good. (Chapter 29: "Hitler and Buchman")
 * The Oxford group movement, imagining itself the mediator of Christ's salvation in a catastrophic age, is really an additional evidence of the decay in which we stand. Its religion manages to combine bourgeois complacency with Christian contrition in a manner which makes the former dominant. Its morality is a religious expression of a decadent individualism. Far from offering us a way out of our difficulties it adds to the general confusion. This is not the gospel's message of judgement and hope to the world. It is bourgeois optimism, individualism and moralism expressing itself in the guise of religion. No wonder the rather jittery plutocrats of our day open their spacious summer homes to its message! (Chapter 29: "Hitler and Buchman")

The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941)

 * The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation, from the Gifford Lectures, (1941)

 * An irrevocable defeat of a socio-historical cause which gives meaning to the life of the individual must create a complete sense of meaninglessness unless the individual is sustained by a religion which interprets such defeats from the aspect of the eternal.
 * vol. 1, p. 69

 * The final sin of man, said Luther truly, is his unwillingness to concede that he is a sinner. The significant contribution of modern culture to this perennial human inclination lies in the number of plausible reasons which it was able to adduce in support of man's good opinion of himself.
 * vol. 1, p. 121

 * There is no level of moral achievement upon which man can have or actually has an easy conscience.
 * vol. 1, p. 131

 * Man does not know himself truly except as he knows himself confronted by God. Only in that confrontation does he become aware of his full stature and freedom and of the evil in him.
 * vol. 1, p. 131

 * Human existence is obviously distinguished from animal life by its qualified participation in creation. Within limits it breaks the forms of nature and creates new configurations of vitality. Its transcendence over natural process offers it the opportunity of interfering with the established forms and unities of vitality as nature knows them.

 * The modern man is . . . certain about his essential virtue . . . [and since] he does not see that he has a freedom of spirit which transcends both nature and reason . . . [he] is unable to understand the real pathos of his defiance of nature's and reason's laws. He always imagines himself betrayed into this defiance either by some accidental corruption in his past history or by some sloth of reason. Hence he hopes for redemption, either through a program of social reorganization or by some scheme of education.

 * The brotherhood of the community is indeed the ground in which the individual is ethically realized. But the community is the frustration as well as the realization of individual life. Its collective egotism is an offense to his conscience; its institutional injustices negate the ideal of justice; and such brotherhood as it achieves is limited by ethnic and geographic boundaries. Historical communities are, in short, more deeply involved in nature and time than the individual.

The Serenity Prayer (c. 1942)

 * This statement, or variants of it, have often been attributed to others, including St. Francis of Assisi, but without sources. Though similar prayers may have existed, the work seems to be Niebuhr's. He never copyrighted the prayer, and it has been used in many variants.

 * 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. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.
 * Full version of the original (ca. 1942)

 * 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.
 * Niebuhr's preferred form, as declared by his widow

 * God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
 * One of the most commonly quoted forms.

The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (1945)

 * Man is the kind of animal who cannot merely live. If he lives at all, he is bound to seek the realization of his true nature; and to his true nature belongs his fulfilment in the lives of others. The will to live is thus transmuted into the will to self-realization; and self-realization involves self-giving in relation to others. When this desire for self-realization is fully explored, it becomes apparent that it is subject to the paradox that the highest form of self-realization is the consequence of self-giving, but that it cannot be the intended consequence without being prematurely limited. Thus the will to live is finally transmuted into its opposite in the sense that only in self-giving can the self be fulfilled, for: “he that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."  Reinhold Niebuhr The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness 1945 p. 20-21

Faith and History: A Comparison of Christian and Modern Views of History (1949)

 * The fact that the prevailing mood of modern culture was able to transmute the original pessimism of romanticism into an optimistic creed proves the power of this mood. Only occasionally the original pessimism erupts in full vigor, as in the thought of a Schopenhauer or Nietzsche. The subjugation of romantic pessimism, together with the transmutation of Marxist catastrophism establishes historical optimism far beyond the confines of modern rationalism. Though there are minor dissonances the whole chorus of modern culture learned to sing the new song of hope in remarkable harmony. The redemption of mankind, by whatever means, was assured for the future. It was, in fact, assured by the future.

 * There were experiences in previous centuries which might well have challenged this unqualified optimism. But the expansion of man's power over nature proceeded at such a pace that all doubts were quieted, allowing the nineteenth century to become the “century of hope” and to express the modern mood in its most extravagant terms. History, refusing to move by the calendar, actually permitted the nineteenth century to indulge its illusions into the twentieth. Then came the deluge. Since 1914 one tragic experience has followed another, as if history had been designed to refute the vain delusions of modern man.

The Irony of American History (1952)

 * The Irony of American History, Charles Scribner’s Sons (1952)

 * [The value and dignity of the individual] is threatened whenever it is assumed that individual desires, hopes and ideals can be fitted with frictionless harmony into the collective purposes of man. The individual is not discrete. He cannot find his fulfillment outside of the community; but he also cannot find fulfillment completely within society. In so far as he finds fulfillment within society he must abate his individual ambitions. He must 'die to self' if he would truly live. In so far as he finds fulfillment beyond every historical community he lives his life in painful tension with even the best community, sometimes achieving standards of conduct which defy the standards of the community with a resolute "we must obey God rather than man."

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * 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 are 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.
 * p. 63

The Mike Wallace Interview (1958)

 * The Mike Wallace Interview ABC TV (27 April 1958)

 * 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. ... 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.

 * Not necessarily every standard that every church tries to enforce upon the society is from the society's standpoint a good standard.

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * 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. The nuclear age has refuted the idea of progress and Marxism has been refuted by Stalinism. Therefore people have returned to the historic religion. But 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.

 * 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. The fanatic is dangerous. 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.

 * 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. Nonetheless, the human situation is so, and this is why 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. That's why history is not an answer to our problem, because history complicates, enlarges every problem of human existence.

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * It is significant that it is as difficult to get charity out of piety as to get reasonableness out of .
 * On the conceits of pious theists and rationalistic atheists.

 * 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.

Quotes about Niebuhr

 * "Dread or anxiety," he explained, "is the psychological condition which precedes sin, comes as near as possible to it, and is as provocative as possible of dread, but without explaining sin, which breaks forth first in the qualitative leap." Kierkegaard saw this "sickness unto death" as an inherent factor in human existence, and he taught that a "synthesis" was needed, by which he meant a vital relationship of man with God by which man may resolve his inner conflicts and live at peace with himself. Influenced by these thoughts of Kierkegaard, Reinhold Niebuhr has developed the thesis that man is a creature of two dimensions: "He stands at the juncture of nature and spirit." As finite, man is a part of nature, subject to its laws and its vicissitudes; but as self-conscious, man transcends himself, being capable of viewing himself as object, and thus is a creature of spirit. As part of nature he is determined; as spirit he is above nature and free. It is natural to man, therefore, to be in tension between the two; that tension is his anxiety, which is not sin but tempts to sin.
 * Robert H. Bonthius, in Christian Paths to Self-acceptance (1948), p. 8

 * The reverential awe his words evoked reflects, in part, the shallowness and superficiality of the reigning intellectual culture. ... But to explain his status as "official establishment theologian" we must also attend to the lessons drawn from his exhortations. ...  The inescapable "taint of sin on all historical achievements," the necessity to make "conscious choices of evil for the sake of good"—these are soothing doctrines for those preparing to "face the responsibilities of power," or in plain English, to set forth on a life of crime, to "play hardball" in their efforts to "maintain this position of disparity" between our overwhelming wealth and the poverty of others, in George Kennan's trenchant phrase as he urged in a secret document of 1948 that we put aside "idealistic slogans" and prepare "to deal in straight power concepts." Herein lies the secret of Niebuhr's enormous influence and success.
 * Noam Chomsky, "Reinhold Niebuhr," Grand Street, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Winter, 1987), p. 212

He persuaded me and many of my contemporaries that original sin provides a far stronger foundation for freedom and self-government than illusions about human perfectibility. Niebuhr's analysis was grounded in the Christianity of Augustine and Calvin, but he had, nonetheless, a special affinity with secular circles. His warnings against utopianism, messianism and perfectionism strike a chord today. We are beginning in this distraught decade to remember what we should never have forgotten: We cannot play the role of God to history, and we must strive as best we can to attain decency, clarity and proximate justice in an ambiguous world. Niebuhr the man? He was high-spirited, great-hearted, devoid of pomposity and pretense, endlessly curious about ideas and personalities, vigorous in his enthusiasms and criticisms, filled with practical wisdom and, for all his robust ego, a man of endearing humility.
 * Traditionally, the idea of the frailty of man led to the demand for obedience to ordained authority. But Niebuhr rejected that ancient conservative argument. Ordained authority, he showed, is all the more subject to the temptations of self-interest, self-deception and self-righteousness. Power must be balanced by power.
 * Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in "Reinhold Niebuhr's Long Shadow" in The New York Times (22 June 1992)

 * At Swanwick when Niebuhr had quit it A young man exclaimed "I have hit it! Since I cannot do right, I must find out tonight The right sin to commit and commit it."
 * William Temple, limerick composed after hearing Reinhold Niebuhr lecture in 1939, as cited in "Reinhold Niebuhr," Grand Street, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Winter, 1987), p. 212 and Sensei: A Journey from Dust-Bowl Farm Boy to "Honored Teacher" in Japan, p. 131

 * Reinhold Niebuhr is a man of God, but a man of the world as well. Dr. Niebuhr would seem to be saying that if a nation would survive and remain free, its citizens must use religion as a source of self-criticism, not as a source of self-righteousness.
 * Mike Wallace, in The Mike Wallace Interview ABC TV (27 April 1958)

 * Niebuhr updated what the Lutheran tradition calls the elenctic use of the law: the function of God's law is first to show us that we are sinners. Luther had made this claim about the Ten Commandments and other laws. Niebuhr applied it to the Sermon on the Mount; the function of these teachings of Jesus is to show us that we need forgiveness.
 * John Howard Yoder, Christian Attitudes to War, Peace, and Revolution, p. 290

title: Reinhold Niebuhr


text:
Martin Niemöller

Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a Protestant pastor and social activist.

Quotes

 * Our people are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God. In this connection we must warn the Führer, that the adoration frequently bestowed on him is only due to God. Some years ago the Führer objected to having his picture placed on Protestant altars. Today his thoughts are used as a basis not only for political decisions but also for morality and law. He himself is surrounded with the dignity of a priest and even of an intermediary between God and man... We ask that liberty be given to our people to go their way in the future under the sign of the Cross of Christ, in order that our grandsons may not curse their elders on the ground that their elders left them a state on earth that closed to them the Kingdom of God.
 * Statement on behalf of the Confessional Church, signed by nine other pastors, as quoted in TIME magazine (27 July 1936)

 * The oppression is growing, and anyone who has had to submit to the Tempter's machine-gun fire during this last week thinks differently from what he did even three weeks ago.
 * Last sermon before being imprisoned by the Nazi regime of Germany (27 June 1937), as quoted in Religion in the Reich (1939) by Michael Power, p. 142

 * We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man.
 * Last sermon before being imprisoned by the Nazi regime of Germany (27 June 1937), as quoted in Religion in the Reich (1939) by Michael Power, p. 142

 * No honest man or woman in Germany feels responsible for these things. Good Germans took Nazism as a new religion. These people are shocked by the revelations which have shown that Nazism was not idealism, but a means to the performance of criminal acts... In war a German feels bound to join the ranks without question. Three of my sons were called up. I could not hold back. I wrote from the concentration camp to Admiral Raeder, C. in C. of the Navy, asking to be allowed to return to the submarine service or to do any other service in the Navy. I heard nothing for several months, and then a reply came, not from Raeder but from Keitel, head of the Wehrmacht. He thanked me, but regretted I could not be employed on active service.
 * Replying to questions on the atrocities of the concentration camps, at a press conference in Naples, Italy, and confirming that he actually had written a widely publicized letter from such a camp, early in the war, to be permitted to serve in the military (5 June 1945)

habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist.
 * ''Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich nicht protestiert; ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter. Als sie die Juden holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Jude. Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.'' I remained silent; I was not a communist.
 * When the Nazis came for the communists,

When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out. and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up. I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist. When they locked up the Social Democrats, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat. When they arrested the trade unionists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist. When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest. First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak out for me.
 * "First they came..." – The origins of this poem first have been traced to a speech given by Niemöller on January 6, 1946, to the representatives of the Confessing Church in Frankfurt. According to research by Harold Marcuse, the original groups mentioned in the speech were Communists, the incurably sick, Jews, and people in occupied countries. Since then, the contents have often been altered to produce numerous variants. Niemöller himself came up with different versions, depending on the year. The most famous and well known alterations are perhaps those beginning "First they came for the Jews" of which this is one of the more commonly encountered:
 * First they came for the Jews
 * Another variant extends the comparisons to include Catholics and Protestants:
 * In Germany they first came for the Communists,
 * Other translations or variants:
 * In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.
 * Twenty-five years later Niemöller indicated that this was the version he preferred, in a 1971 interview.
 * When the Nazis came for the communists, I did not speak out; As I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I did not speak out; I was not a social democrat.  When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; As I was not a trade unionist.  When they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; As I was not a Jew.  When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
 * When the Nazis arrested the Communists,
 * First the Nazis came…
 * Online source for German quote: Martin Niemöller Stiftung, 22.09.2005, Wiesbaden

 * In Erlangen, for instance, in January 1946 he spoke of meeting a German Jew who had lost everything — parents, brothers, and sisters too. 'I could not help myself', said Niemöller, 'I had to tell him, "Dear brother, fellow man, Jew, before you say anything, I say to you: I acknowledge my guilt and beg you to forgive me and my people for this sin."' Niemöller's stance was by no means entirely welcome to the 1,200 students to whom he was preaching. They shouted and jeered as he preached that Germany must accept responsibility for the five or six million murdered Jews. Students in Marburg and Göttingen similarly heckled him. But Niemöller insisted that "We must openly declare that we are not innocent of the Nazi murders, of the murder of German communists, Poles, Jews, and the people in German-occupied countries. No doubt others made mistakes too, but the wave of crime started here and here it reached its highest peak. The guilt exists, there is no doubt about that — even if there were no other guilt than that of the six million clay urns containing the ashes of incinerated Jews from all over Europe. And this guilt lies heavily upon the German people and the German name, even upon Christendom. For in our world and in our name have these things been done."
 * Sermons in Erlangen, Marburg, Göttingen and Frankfurt (January 1946), as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 177

 * The renunciation of war as expressed in the Japanese Constitution has given a first ray of hope to a world in darkness and despair, and men today cling to this hope passionately. Can we really do something about it or are we to stand aside as idle onlookers, unable to contribute for better or for worse?
 * Statement for a Japanese publication (February 1954), as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 214

 * I have never concealed the fact and said it before the court in 1938 that I came from an anti-Semitic past and tradition... I ask only that you look at my life historically and take it as history. I believe that from 1933 I truly represented the Lutheran-Christian outlook on the Jewish question — as I revealed before the court — but that I returned home after eight years' imprisonment as a completely different person.
 * Letter to a Dr. Weiner (1956), as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 334

 * We had been frightened of atomic weapons since 1945. In those days I became convinced — and remain convinced now — that, after Hitler, Truman was the greatest murderer in the world.
 * On his movement toward pacifism and becoming an activist against nuclear weaponry, as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 213

 * For politicians truth and falsehood are unimportant. So I never could become a politician — not even a church politician.
 * As quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 223

 * I began my political responsibility as an ultra-conservative. I wanted the Kaiser to come back; and now I am a revolutionary. I really mean that. If I live to be a hundred I shall maybe be an anarchist, for an anarchist wants to do without all government.
 * As quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 223

 * One thing is clear, the president of North Vietnam is not a fanatic. He is a very strong and determined man, but capable of listening, something that is very rare in a person of his position.
 * On Ho Chi Minh. as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 225

 * I am now convinced that the Reformation of the church will come from the east. In the west there is no spiritual life. (I'm speaking of the Protestant church and not the Roman Catholic church.) We have civilisation and we try to keep up culture, but we have no spiritual life. The east has a spiritual life. They know that colour influences the spirit more than black lines. In Russia there is still the notion that art is nearer religion than thinking in lines and logic. All abstract rationalising needs to be filled out with sensual thinking and feelings. In Russia there is still a strong impression of colour.
 * Statement on his admiration of the Eastern Orthodox traditions (1982), as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 207

Quotes about Niemöller

 * You suppose that Christianity is oppressed in Germany and that there is a rule by force and secret trial. Though this is not the case, the German State cannot be expected to tolerate incessant attacks, open or veiled, by ministers of the Christian faith upon its very foundations. There are recalcitrant pastors who seem to be unaware of the fact that they would have been shot, hanged or burned long ago if it had not been for the gigantic and successful struggle of Adolf Hitler to safeguard civilization in this country against the horrors of Communism. Therefore by attacking National Socialism, they are striking at themselves.
 * Dr. Reinhard Becker, in a letter to Niemöller (November 1937), as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 135
 * The Confessional Church as a whole did not offer resistance in the political sense, with the intent of bringing down the National Socialist regime. It fought first to keep its organizational structures intact and then preserve the independence of church doctrine, according to which the Christian commandments were not to be subordinated to Nazi ideology. However, the regime often felt politically and ideologically attacked by this ecclesiastical and theological contrariness. Henceforth a rupture ran through all the churches of the German states: the adherents of the Confessional Church found themselves increasingly in a state of principled opposition to both the state and the German Christians, who were committed National Socialists. In many Christians of the Confessional Church the oppositional stance eventually evolved into political resistance. Duty bound by conscience and often entirely on their own (and at other times supported by their fellow congregants), they fought with the means at their disposal—sermons and the written word—first against state intrusion into church life and then against National Socialist ideology in practice, for example when it targeted the handicapped. Moreover, they also opposed a Christian faith that was blended with anti-Semitism and “neo-Pagan heresies.” The latter included the call for a “heroic Jesus” as well as the desire for a “true to type” faith founded on “race, national characteristics [Volkstum ], and nation.”
 * Wolfgang Benz, A Concise History of the Third Reich (2006)

 * He called on the people to show a sense of responsibility towards their fellow-men, he abjured them not to forget the lessons of the past and, above all, he reminded them constantly of the burden of guilt which had to be redeemed before a new life could begin. In so doing he was at pains not to exclude himself from a like responsibility, and told in this connexion the story of the visit which he and his wife paid to Dachau in the autumn of 1945. "After showing her the cell in which he had been confined for so many months, they passed the crematorium. A great white-painted board had been affixed to a tree and on it, in black letters, they read: "Here between the years 1933 and 1945 238,756 human beings were incinerated." At that moment, Niemoller told his audience, the consciousness of his own guilt and his own failure assailed him as never before. "And God asked me — as once He asked the First Man after the Fall, Adam — Man, where wast thou in those years 1933 to 1945? I knew I had no answer to that question. True, I had an alibi in my pocket, for the years 1937 to 1945, my identity disc from the concentration camp. But what help to me was that? God was not asking me where I had been from 1937 to 1945, but from 1933 to 1945, and for the years 1933 to 1937 I had no answer. Should I have said perhaps: 'As a pastor in those years I bore courageous witness to the Faith; I dared to speak, and risked life and freedom in doing so?' But God did not ask about that. God asked: 'Where were you from 1933 to 1945 when human beings were incinerated here? When, in 1933, Goering publicly boasted that all active Communists had been imprisoned and rendered harmless — that was when we forgot our responsibility, that was when we should have warned our parishioners. Many a man from my own parish, who went and joined the National Socialist Party and who is now to do penance for his act, could rise up against me today and say that he would have acted differently if I had not kept silence at that time. … I know that I made my contribution towards the enslavement of the German people.
 * Dietmar Schmidt, in Pastor Niemöller (1959)

 * The Reverend Martin Niemoeller had personally welcomed the coming to power of the Nazis in 1933. In that year his autobiography, From U-boat to Pulpit, had been published. The story of how this submarine commander in the First World War had become a prominent Protestant pastor was singled out for special praise in the Nazi press and became a best seller. To Pastor Niemoeller, as to many a Protestant clergyman, the fourteen years of the Republic had been, as he said, "years of darkness" and at the close of his autobiography he added a note of satisfaction that the Nazi revolution had finally triumphed and that it had brought about the "national revival" for which he himself had fought so long — for a time in the free corps, from which so many Nazi leaders had come. He was soon to experience a terrible disillusionment. … By the beginning of 1934, the disillusioned Pastor Niemoeller had become the guiding spirit of the minority resistance in both the "Confessional Church" and the Pastor's Emergency League.
 * William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of he Third Reich (1964), p. 233

 * Niemöller had once again delivered a rebellious sermon in Dahlem; at the same time transcripts of his tapped telephone conversations were presented to Hitler. In a bellow, Hitler ordered Niemöller to be put in a concentration camp and, since he had proven himself to be incorrigible, kept there for life.
 * Albert Speer, on Hitler's decision to arrest Niemöller, in Inside the Third Reich: The Memoirs of Albert Speer (1970), p. 98

title: Martin Niemöller


text:
Richard Perle

Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American political advisor who served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under President Ronald Reagan. He began his political career as a senior staff member to Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970s. He served on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004 where he served as chairman from 2001 to 2003 under the Bush Administration before resigning due to conflict of interests.

Quotes

 * National sovereignty is an obligation as well as an entitlement. A government that will not perform the role of a government forfeits the rights of a government.
 * An End To Evil: How To Win the War on Terror, David Frum, Richard N. Perle, Ballantine (reprint,2004), Chapter 5 'The War Abroad,' p. 102 : ISBN 0345477170

 * "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing." (2003)
 * Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html
 * Notes: in reference to the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq

 * "And a year from now, I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush. There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they've been liberated. And it is getting easier every day for Iraqis to express that sense of liberation."
 * Source: http://www.aei.org/events/contentID.20031003144313426/default.asp
 * Source: http://www.catch.com/comments/34635_0_17_0_C/
 * Notes: from luncheon keynote speech, "Turkey at the Crossroads", September 22, 2003

 * Sometimes the things we have to do are objectionable in the eyes of others.
 * I’ve never thought much of Joe Nye’s writings on soft power.
 * Dictators must have enemies. They must have internal enemies to justify their secret police and external enemies to justify their military forces.
 * 2005 February 17 - In a debate with DNC Chairman Howard Dean at Pacific University

 * I really don't have a solution. Except to say that a precondition for any solution must be a recognition on the part of all parties on the legitimacy of all parties. That is you cannot build a political agreement on the premise that a Jewish state in Palestine is illegitimate.
 * When asked about a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a 1988 debate with Noam Chomsky at Ohio State University
 * Source: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=program-info&program_id=8409 http://chomskytorrents.org/TorrentDetails.php?TorrentID=130

 * I think there is a potential civic culture in Arab countries that can lead to democratic institutions and I think Iraq is probably the best place to put that proposition to the test
 * Well, you’re going to find a disproportionate number of Jews in any sort of intellectual undertaking.
 * PBS Think Tank interview by Ben Wattenberg, November 14, 2002
 * Source: http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript1017.html

 * The programme of the British Labour Party under Neil Kinnock is so wildly irresponsible, so separate and apart from the historic NATO strategy, that I think a Labour government that stood by its present policies—and I rather doubt that they would—would, if it didn't destroy the Alliance, at least diminish its effective ability to do the task for which it was created.
 * The Times (25 September, 1986).

 * About George W. Bush: "He came ill-equipped for the job and has failed to master it."
 * Source: "Perle Turns on Bush in Harsh Terms", by Nicholas Wapshott, New York Sun, May 15, 2007
 * Notes: newspaper article reporting on Perle's statements at a meeting of the Hudson Institute on May 14, 2007.

Quotes about

 * At the same time, Kissinger, Carter and détente were condemned as weakening the West by a group of conservative Democrats led by Henry (Scoop) Jackson, a critic of SALT, as well as by key Republicans who were influential in the Ford administration (1974–7), notably his Chief of Staff, Richard (Dick) Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. They drew on advice from commentators such as Richard Perle, Richard Pipes and Paul Wolfowitz who warned about Soviet intentions. The continuity of this group, through 1990s’ opposition to Clintonian liberal internationalism, to the neo-conservative activism of the early 2000s, especially against Iraq, is notable.
 * Jeremy Black, The Cold War: A Military History (2015)

 * That war in the early 1990s changed a lot for me. I never thought I would see, in Europe, a full-dress reprise of internment camps, the mass murder of civilians, the reinstitution of torture and rape as acts of policy. And I didn't expect so many of my comrades to be indifferent – or even take the side of the fascists. It was a time when many people on the left were saying 'Don't intervene, we'll only make things worse' or, 'Don't intervene, it might destabilise the region. And I thought – destabilisation of fascist regimes is a good thing. Why should the left care about the stability of undemocratic regimes? Wasn't it a good thing to destabilise the regime of General Franco? It was a time when the left was mostly taking the conservative, status quo position – leave the Balkans alone, leave Milosevic alone, do nothing. And that kind of conservatism can easily mutate into actual support for the aggressors. Weimar-style conservatism can easily mutate into National Socialism. So you had people like Noam Chomsky's co-author Ed Herman go from saying 'Do nothing in the Balkans', to actually supporting Milosevic, the most reactionary force in the region. That's when I began to first find myself on the same side as the neocons. I was signing petitions in favour of action in Bosnia, and I would look down the list of names and I kept finding, there's Richard Perle. There's Paul Wolfowitz. That seemed interesting to me. These people were saying that we had to act. Before, I had avoided them like the plague, especially because of what they said about General Sharon and about Nicaragua. But nobody could say they were interested in oil in the Balkans, or in strategic needs, and the people who tried to say that – like Chomsky – looked ridiculous. So now I was interested.
 * Christopher Hitchens, "In enemy territory? An interview with Christopher Hitchens.", Interview with Johann Hari (2004-09-23): On the Bosnian War

title: Richard Perle