William Ellery Channing Quotes & Sayings

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

The great hope of society is in individual character. — William Ellery Channing

The home is the chief school of human virtues. — William Ellery Channing

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

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

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

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

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. — William Ellery Channing

I call that mind free, which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come. — William Ellery Channing

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

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. — William Ellery Channing

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. — William Ellery Channing

Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it. — William Ellery Channing

The world is governed by opinion. — William Ellery Channing

Our affections are our life. We live by them; they supply our warmth. — William Ellery Channing

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 God's 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. — William Ellery Channing

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

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

All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene. — William Ellery Channing

Life is a fragment, a moment between two eternities. — William Ellery Channing

O God, animate us to cheerfulness! May we have a joyful sense of our blessings, learn to look on the bright circumstances of our lot, and maintain a perpetual contentedness — William Ellery Channing

The chief evil of war is more evil. War is the concentration of all human crimes. Here is its distinguishing, accursed brand. Under its standard gather violence, malignity, rage, fraud, perfidy, rapacity, and lust. If it only slew man, it would do little. It turns man into a beast of prey. — William Ellery Channing

True love is the parent of humility ... — William Ellery Channing

A man in earnest finds means or, if he cannot find, creates them. — William Ellery Channing

Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself. — William Ellery Channing

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

No one should part with their individuality and become that of another. — William Ellery Channing

Error is discipline through which we advance. — William Ellery Channing

But the ground of a man's culture lies in his nature, not in his calling. His powers are to be unfolded on account of their inherent dignity, not their outward direction. He is to be educated, because he is a man, not because he is to make shoes, nail, or pins. — 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

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

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

The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged and trampled under foot. — William Ellery Channing

Love is the life of the soul. It is the harmony of the universe. — William Ellery Channing

To be prosperous is not to be superior, and should form no barrier between men. Wealth out not to secure the prosperous the slightest consideration. The only distinctions which should be recognized are those of the soul, of strong principle, of incorruptible integrity, of usefulness, of cultivated intellect, of fidelity in seeking the truth. — William Ellery Channing

Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life — William Ellery Channing

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

Precept is instruction written in the sand; the tide flows over it and the record is gone; example is graven on the rock, and the lesson is not soon lost. — William Ellery Channing

Home - the nursery of the Infinite. — William Ellery Channing

Perhaps in our presence, the most heroic deed on earth is done in some silent spirit, the loftiest purpose cherished, the most generous sacrifice made, and we do not suspect it. I believe this greatness to be most common among the multitude, whose names are never heard. — William Ellery Channing

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

Health is the working man's fortune, and he ought to watch over it more than the capitalist over his largest investments. Health lightens the efforts of body and mind. It enables a man to crowd much work into a narrow compass. Without it, little can be earned, and that little by slow, exhausting toil. — William Ellery Channing

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

War is to be ranked among the most dreadful calamities which fall on a guilty world; and, what deserves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence. — William Ellery Channing

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

The mind never puts forth greater power over itself when in great trials, it yields up calmly its desires, affections, and interests in God. There are seasons when to be still demands immeasurably higher strength than to act. Composure is often the highest result of power. Do you think it demands no power to calm the stormy elements of passion, to moderate the vehemence of desire, to throw off the load of dejection, to suppress every repining thought when the dearest hopes are withered, and to turn the wounded spirit from dangerous reveries and wasting grief, to the quiet discharge of ordinary duties? Is there no power put forth, when a {woman}, stripped of {her} property, of the fruits of a life's labors, quells discontent and gloomy forebodings, and serenely and patiently returns to the tasks which Providence assigns? — William Ellery Channing

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 Channing

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. — William Ellery Channing

What a sublime doctrine it is, that goodness cherished now is eternal life already entered on! — 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. — 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. — William Ellery Channing

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

I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world. — William Ellery Channing

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

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

Do anything rather than give yourself to reverie. — William Ellery Channing

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

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. — William Ellery Channing

In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition. — William Ellery Channing

Others are affected by what I am, and say, and do. So that a single act of mine may spread and spread in widening circles, through a nation or humanity. Through my vice I intensify the taint of vice throughout the universe. Through my misery I make multitudes sad. On the other hand, every development of my virtue makes me an ampler blessing to my race. Every new truth that I gain makes me a brighter light to humanity. — 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. — William Ellery Channing

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

Life has a higher end, than to be amused. — 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. — William Ellery Channing

Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him. — William Ellery Channing

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

Progress, the growth of power, is the end and boon of liberty; and, without this, a people may have the name, but want the substance and spirit of freedom. — 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. — 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

Conscience, the sense of right, the power of perceiving moral distinctions, the power of discerning between justice and injustice, excellence and baseness, is the highest faculty given us by God, the whole foundation of our responsibility, and our sole capacity for religion ... God, in giving us conscience, has implanted a principle within us which forbids us to prostrate ourselves before mere power, or to offer praise where we do not discover worth. — William Ellery Channing

Science and art may invent splendid modes of illuminating the apartments of the opulent; but these are all poor and worthless compared with the common light which the sun sends into all our windows, which he pours freely, impartially over hill and valley, which kindles daily the eastern and western sky; and so the common lights of reason, and conscience, and love, are of more worth and dignity than the rare endowments which give celebrity to a few. — William Ellery Channing

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

The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts. — William Ellery Channing

Poetry reveals to us the loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of youthful feelings, reviews the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the springtime of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human nature, by vivid delineations of its tenderest and softest feelings, and through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life. — William Ellery Channing

Be true to your own highest convictions. — William Ellery Channing

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

Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power. — William Ellery Channing

Let every man, if possible, gather some good books under his roof. — William Ellery Channing

The domestic relations precede, and in our present existence are worth more than all our other social ties. They give the first throb to the heart, and unseal the deep fountains of its love. Home is the chief school of human virtue. Its responsibilities, joys, sorrows, smiles, tears, hopes, and solicitudes form the chief interest of human life. — William Ellery Channing

It has often been observed, that those who have the most time at their disposal profit by it the least. A single hour a day, steadily given to the study of some interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge. — William Ellery Channing

No man receives the full culture of a man in whom the sensibility to the beautiful is not cherished; and there is no condition of life from which it should be excluded. Of all luxuries this is the cheapest, and the most at hand, and most important to those conditions where coarse labor tends to give grossness to the mind. — William Ellery Channing

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

May your life preach more loudly than your lips. — William Ellery Channing

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

Real greatness has nothing to do with a man's sphere. It does not lie in the magnitude of his outward agency, in the extent of the effects which he produces. The greatest men may do comparatively little. — William Ellery Channing

Knowledge is essential to freedom. — William Ellery Channing

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration. — William Ellery Channing

How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success. — William Ellery Channing

Why is it that we are so busy with the future? It is not our province; and is there not a criminal interference with Him to whom it belongs, in our feverish, anxious attempts to dispose of it, and in filling it up with shadows of good and evil shaped by our own wild imaginations? To do God's will as fast as it is made known to us, to inquire hourly
I had almost said each moment
what He requires of us, and to leave ourselves, our friends, and every interest at His control, with a cheerful trust that the path which He marks out leads to our perfection and to Himself,
this is at once our duty and happiness; and why will we not walk in the plain, simple way? — William Ellery Channing

Let us aspire towards this living confidence, that it is the will of God to unfold and exalt without end the spirit that entrusts itself to Him in well-doing as to a faithful Creator. — William Ellery Channing

[Peace] is the highest and most strenuous act of the soul, but an entirely harmonious act, in which all our powers and affections are blending in a beautiful proportion, and sustain and perfect one another. It is more than the silence after storms. It is as the concord of all melodious sounds ... an alliance of love with all beings, a sympathy with all that is pure and happy, a surrender of every separate will and interest, a participation of the spirit and life of the universe ... This is peace, and the true happiness of [humanity]. — William Ellery Channing

A general loftiness of sentiment, independence of men, consciousness of good intentions, self-oblivion in great objects, clear views of futurity; thoughts of the blessed companionship of saints and angels, trust in God as the friend of truth and virtue,
these are the states of mind in which I should live. — 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