William Ellery Channing quotes

William Ellery Channing was an influential American Unitarian preacher and theologian. His sermons and writings helped shape the development of liberal religion in the United States. He championed social reform and promoted the ideals of reason, tolerance, and human dignity. Here are 101 of his quotes:

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. (William Ellery Channing)
Every man is a volume if you know how to read him. View quote
William Ellery Channing
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. View quote
William Ellery Channing
Error is discipline through which we advance. View quote
William Ellery Channing
All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene. View quote
William Ellery Channing
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. View quote
William Ellery Channing
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. View quote
William Ellery Channing
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. View quote
William Ellery Channing
The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves. View quote
William Ellery Channing
Faith is love taking the form of aspiration. View quote
William Ellery Channing
It is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge which determines the mind's dignity. (William Ellery Channing)
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. View quote
William Ellery Channing
We can fix our eyes on perfection, and make almost everything speed towards it. View quote
William Ellery Channing
Did any man at his death ever regret his conflicts with himself, his victories over appetite, his scorn of impure pleasure, or his sufferings for righteousness' sake? View quote
William Ellery Channing
In general, we do well to let an opponent's motives alone. We are seldom just to them. Our own motives on such occasions are often worse than those we assail. View quote
William Ellery Channing
The miracles of Christ were studiously performed in the most unostentatious way. He seemed anxious to veil His majesty under the love with which they were wrought. View quote
William Ellery Channing
Whatever you may suffer, speak the truth. Be worthy of the entire confidence of your associates. Consider what is right as to what must be done. It is not necessary that you should keep your property, or even your life, but it is necessary that you should hold fast your integrity. View quote
William Ellery Channing
A clear thought, a pure affection, a resolute act of a virtuous will, have a dignity of quite another kind, and far higher than accumulations of brick and granite and plaster and stucco, however cunningly put together. View quote
William Ellery Channing
Another powerful principle of our nature, which is the spring of war, is the passion for superiority, for triumph, for power. The human mind is aspiring, impatient of inferiority, and eager for preeminence and control. View quote
William Ellery Channing
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. View quote
William Ellery Channing
The sin that now rises to memory as your bosom sin, let this first of all be withstood and mastered. Oppose it instantly by a detestation of it, by a firm will to conquer it, by reflection, by reason, and by prayer. (William Ellery Channing)
Of all the discoveries which men need to make, the most important, at the present moment, is that of the self-forming power treasured up in themselves. They little suspect its extent, as little as the savage apprehends the energy which the mind is created to exert on the material world. View quote
William Ellery Channing
Religion is faith in an infinite Creator, who delights in and enjoins that rectitude which conscience commands us to seek. This conviction gives a Divine sanction to duty. View quote
William Ellery Channing
What a sublime doctrine it is, that goodness cherished now is eternal life already entered on! View quote
William Ellery Channing
There is but a very minute portion of the creation which we can turn into food and clothes, or gratification for the body; but the whole creation may be used to minister to the sense of beauty. View quote
William Ellery Channing