Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a 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 own standpoint;
therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.
Reinhold Niebuhr - The Irony of American History (1952)
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