William Ellery Channing Quotes

The world is governed by opinion.

Home - the nursery of the Infinite.

Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power.

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.

No punishment is so terrible as prosperous guilt.

War will never yield but to the principles of universal justice and love, and these have no sure root but in the religion of Jesus Christ.

The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect, and virtues.

It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great.

One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.

God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.

Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.

Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.

Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life

Life has a higher end, than to be amused.

An earnest purpose finds time, or makes it. It seizes on spare moments, and turns fragments to golden account.

We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more.

The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts.

In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition.

Let every man, if possible, gather some good books under his roof.

The great hope of society is in individual character.

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.

We never know a greater character unless there is in ourselves something congenial to it.

We honor revelation too highly to make it the antagonist of reason, or to believe that it calls us to renounce our highest powers.

True love is the parent of humility ...

Love is the life of the soul. It is the harmony of the universe.

All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene.

To extinguish the free will is to strike the conscience with death, for both have but one and the same life.

Be true to your own highest convictions.

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no other is, and to do what no other can do.

May your life preach more loudly than your lips.

No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.

Knowledge is essential to freedom.

How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.

God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and fill us with the love of truth and virtue.

The home is the chief school of human virtues.

Other blessings may be taken away, but if we have acquired a good friend by goodness, we have a blessing which improves in value when others fail.

A man in earnest finds means or, if he cannot find, creates them.

Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.

Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, with uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life.

The hills are reared, the seas are scooped in vain If learning's altar vanish from the plain.

Error is discipline through which we advance.

Do anything rather than give yourself to reverie.

My highway is unfeatured air, My consorts are the sleepless stars, And men my giant arms upbear My arms unstained and free from scars.

The world is to be carried forward by truth, which at first offends, which wins its way by degrees, which the many hate and would rejoice to crush.

I laugh, for hope hath a happy place with me; If my boat sinks, 'tis to another sea.

To give a generous hope to a man of his own nature, is to enrich him immeasurably.

A man may quarrel with himself alone; that is, by controverting his better instincts and knowledge when brought face to face with temptation.

One of the tremendous evils of the world, is the monstrous accumulation of power in a few hands.

Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.

Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.

Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him.

Our affections are our life. We live by them; they supply our warmth.

Most joyful let the Poet be, it is through him that all men see.

He who is false to the present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and you will see the effect when the weaving of a life-time is unraveled.

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.

Labor is discovered to be the grand conqueror, enriching and building up nations more surely than the proudest battles.

What a sublime doctrine it is, that goodness cherished now is eternal life already entered on!

Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.

Books are true levelers. They give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race.

No one should part with their individuality and become that of another.

Life is a fragment, a moment between two eternities.

The fewer the voices on the side of truth, the more distinct and strong must be your own.

Every human being is a volume, worthy to be studied.

It is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge which determines the mind's dignity.

A man might pass for insane who should see things as they are.