Richard John Neuhaus

“The most important political office is that of the private citizen.”

“Human rights are not a matter of majority vote.”

“The public square will not and cannot remain naked.”

“Optimism is a psychological disposition. Hope is a theological virtue.”

“The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.”

“Politics is, for the most part, a distraction from the business of living.”

“Theology is the enterprise of thinking about what we are doing when we are praying.”

“An argument is a conversation, not a war.”

“The culture war is not about what we should do, but about who we are.”

“True tolerance is not indifference. It is a deep and abiding respect for the other, even when we disagree.”

“Secularism is not a neutral position; it is a faith commitment of its own.”

“Memory is the mother of conscience.”

“Religion is the audacious attempt to live as though God is.”

“Democracy is a political arrangement, not a saving faith.”

“A just society is one that protects the most vulnerable.”

“The final judgment will be about what we did for the least of these.”

“There is no 'they.' There is only 'us.'”

“A culture is the way a people lives out its answers to the transcendent questions.”

“A church that marries the spirit of the age will be a widow in the next.”

“To be convincingly pro-life, you must be consistently pro-life.”