William Sloane Coffin Jr. Quotes & Sayings

Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. If your heart's full of hope, you can be persistent when you can't be optimistic. You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing. So while I'm not optimistic, I'm always very hopeful. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.

Law is not as disinterested as our concepts of law pretend; law serves power; law in large measure is a recapitulation of the status quo; it confirms a rigid order designed to insulate the beneficiaries of the status quo from the disturbances of change. The painful truth
one with a long history
is that police are around in large part to guarantee a peaceful disgestion for the rich. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.

It is terribly important to realize that the leap of faith is not so much a leap of thought as of action. For while in many matters it is first we must see then we will act; in matters of faith it is first we must do then we will know, first we will be and then we will see. One must, in short, dare to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.

There is nothing anti-intellectual in the leap of faith, for faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.

Christians have no business thinking that the good life consists mainly in not doing bad things. We have no business thinking that to do evil in this world you have to be a Bengal tiger, when, in fact, it is enough to be a tame tabby - a nice person but not a good one. In short, Pentecost makes it clear that nothing is so fatal to Christianity as indifference. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.

Christ came to take away our sins, not our minds. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.

I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings. — William Sloane Coffin Jr.