William Ellery Channing Quotes (46 Quotes)

I laugh, for hope hath happy place with me If my bark sinks, tis to another sea.

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

Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul, that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love, and this may be found in the humblest condition of life.

We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure.

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

The great hope of society is in individual character.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.

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

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

Every human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influence to exert, which are peculiarly his, and which no conscience but his own can teach.

The reveries of youth, in which so much energy is wasted, are the yearnings of a Spirit made for what it has not found but must forever seek as an Ideal.

Life has a higher end, than to be amused.

Habitat of castle gray, Creeping thing in sober way, Visible sage mechanician, Skillfulest arithmetician.

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

The mind, in proportion as it is cut off from free communication with nature, with revelation, with God, with itself, loses its life, just as the body droops when debarred from the air and the cheering light from heaven.

I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, which does not cower to human opinion, which feels itself accountable to a higher tribunal than man's, which respects itself too much to be the slave of the many or the few.

We can fix our eyes on perfection, and make almost everything speed towards it.

Everything here, but the soul of man, is a passing shadow. The only enduring substance is within.

The home is the chief school of human virtues.

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

The best books for a man are not always those which the wise recommend, but often those which meet the peculiar wants, the natural thirst of his mind, and therefore awaken interest and rivet thought.

We are judged not by the degree of our light but by fidelity to the light we have.

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

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

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

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

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.

Great minds are to make others great. Their superiority is to be used, not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge for themselves.

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.

Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.

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.

Do anything rather than give yourself to reverie.

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

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny.... In war, then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges.

All virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in self determination. There is no moral worth in being swept away by a crowd even toward the best objective.

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.

The world is governed by opinion.

Soul Gathers Force It is possible, when the future is dim, when our depressed faculties can form no bright ideas of the perfection and happiness of a better world,it is possible still to cling to the conviction of Gods merciful purpose towards His creatures, of His parental goodness even in suffering, still to feel that the path of duty, though trodden with a heavy heart, leads to peace still to be true to conscience still to do our work, to resist temptation, to be useful, though with diminished energy, to give up our wills when we cannot rejoice under Gods mysterious providence. In this patient, though uncheered obedience, we become prepared for light. The soul gathers force.

Error is discipline through which we advance.

One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.

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

Ideas are the mightiest influence on earth. One great thought breathed into a man may regenerate him.

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

God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.

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

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