William Sloane Coffin quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by William Sloane Coffin

William Sloane Coffin Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from William Sloane Coffin on Wise Famous Quotes.

People who fear disorder more than injustice will only produce more of both.

Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.

Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.

Every nation makes decisions based on self-interest and defends them on the basis of morality.

Isn't that what growing up is all about - learning to outlast despair?

In life you can either follow your fears or be led by your values, by your passions.

Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.

Truth is always in danger of being sacrificed on the altars of good taste and social stability.

To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought.

I asked an 85 year old professor, 'What makes you cry?' He said, 'Whenever I see or hear the truth.'

Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.

We must be governed by the force of law, not by the law of force.

For finally, we are as we love. It is love that measures our stature.

We have sold our birthright of freedom and justice for a mess of national security.

The woman most in need of liberation is the woman in every man and the man in every woman.

What is faith? Faith is being grasped by the power of love.

Love is in the giver, not the gift.

For if you lessen your anger at the structures of power, you lower your love for the victims of power.

If your heart is full of fear, you won't seek truth; you'll seek security. If a heart is full of love, it will have a limbering effect on the mind.

Spirituality means to me living the ordinary life extraordinarily well. As the old-church father said, 'The glory of God is a human being fully alive.

Hope criticizes what is, hopelessness rationalizes it. Hope resists, hopelessness adapts.

A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human.

Without love, violence will change the world; it will change it into a more violent one.

When a man is drowning, it may be better for him to try to swim than to thrash around waiting for divine intervention.

We put our best foot forward, but it's the other one that needs the attention.

All of life is the exercise of risk.

Unity is not something we are called to create; it's something we are called to recognize.

I'm delighted that the future is unsure. That's the way it should be.

It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one.

Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life, humor handles the more immediate ones.

We want God to be strong, so that we can be weak. But He wants to be weak so that we can be strong.

The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence - reverance for human life and the environment.

We are not loved because we are valued; we are valued because we are loved.

It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course it's a crutch. What makes you think you don't limp?

Nuclear Weapons merit unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation

Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living.

It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like mighty waters," and quite another to work out the irrigation system.

I'm not OK, you're not OK-and that's OK.

Human beings who blind themselves to human need make themselves less human.

...there is more mercy in God than sin in us.