William Ellery Channing Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing (1839). “Self-culture: An address introductory to the Franklin lectures, delivered at Boston, September, 1838”, p.42
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“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.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing (1835). “The works of Wm. Ellery Channing ...”, p.285
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“Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“Every man is a volume if you know how to read him.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
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“Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“It is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge which determines the mind's dignity.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing (1840). “Lectures on the elevation of the labouring portion of the community”, p.25
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“Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.”
-- 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.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
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“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.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“Reading is the royal road to intellectual eminence...Truly good books are more than mines to those who can understand them. They are the breathings of the great souls of past times. Genius is not embalmed in them, but lives in them perpetually.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“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.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common - this is my symphony.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing, “My Symphony”
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“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.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“May your life preach more loudly than your lips.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing, George Channing (1849). “(398 p.)”, p.101
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“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.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : "Self-Culture" (address), Boston, Mass., Sept. 1838
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“Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
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“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.”
-- 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.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing (1839). “Self-culture: An address introductory to the Franklin lectures, delivered at Boston, September, 1838”, p.22
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“The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
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“One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“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.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“The home is the chief school of human virtues.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing, George Channing (1849). “(411 p.)”, p.69
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“God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
“Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.”
-- William Ellery ChanningSource : William Ellery Channing (1843). “The Works of William E. Channing”, p.160
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“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 -
“I laugh, for hope hath a happy place with me; If my boat sinks, 'tis to another sea.”
-- William Ellery Channing -
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“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.”
-- William Ellery Channing
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