William Ellery Channing Quotes & William Ellery Channing Sayings

"It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the communion with superior minds. In the best books, authors talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books." William Ellery Channing "The home is the chief school of human virtues." William Ellery Channing Quotations A single hour a day, steadily given to the study of some interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge. William Ellery Channing All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene. William Ellery Channing Be true to your own highest conviction William Ellery Channing Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds to the numberless flowers of the Spring; it waves in the branches of the trees and in the green blades of grass; it haunts the depths of the earth and the sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and the setting sun all overflow with beauty. The universe is its temple; and those people who are alive to it can not lift their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side. William Ellery Channing Sayings But the ground of a man's [sic] 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 Quotes Christianity is not only confirmed by miracles, but is in itself, in its very essence, a miraculous religion. William Ellery Channing Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. William Ellery Channing Adages Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. William Ellery Channing Quotes Error is discipline through which we advance. 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 Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance. William Ellery Channing Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it. 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 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 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 aidthem to judge for themselves. William Ellery Channing I do not look on a human being as a machine, made to be kept in action by a foreign force, to accomplish an unvarying succession of motions, to do a fixed amount of work, and then to fall to pieces at death, but as a being of free spiritual powers; and I place little value on any culture but that which aims to bring out these, and to give them perpetual impulse and expansion. William Ellery Channing I have expressed my strong interest in the mass of the people; and this is founded, not on their usefulness to the community, so much as on what they are in themselves.... Indeed every man (sic), in every condition, is great. It is only our own diseased sight which makes him little. A man is great as a man, be he where or what he may. The grandeur of his nature turns to insignificance all outward distinctions. William Ellery Channing Quotations I have expressed my strong interest in the mass of the people; and this is founded, not on their usefulness to the community, so much as on what they are in themselves.... Indeed every man (sic), in every condition, is great. It is only our own diseased sight which makes him little. A man is great as a man, be he where or what he may. The grandeur of his nature turns to insignificance all outward distinctions. William Ellery Channing It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the communion with superior minds... In the best books, authors talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. William Ellery Channing Popular Quotes It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the intercourse with superior minds... In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most previous thought, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. 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 One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography. William Ellery Channing Adages 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 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 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 Adages Secret study, silent thought is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs. What a man does outwardly is but the expression and completion of his inward thought. William Ellery Channing Popular Quotes 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 Popular Quotes 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 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. William Ellery Channing The distinctions of society vanish before the light of these truths. I attach myself to the multitude, not because they are voters and have political power; but because they are (human), and have within their reach the most glorious prizes of humanity. . . . Self-culture, the care which every (person) owes to (oneself), to the unfolding . . . of (one's) nature. . . . William Ellery Channing Adages The great end in religious instruction, is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own; not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own; not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth; not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs; not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision; not to burden memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought. William Ellery Channing The hills are reared, the seas are scooped in vainIf learning's altar vanish from the plain. William Ellery Channing Popular Quotes 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. William Ellery Channing Quotes The more I examine Christianity, the more I am struck with its universality. I see in it a religion made for all regions and all times, for all classes and all stages of society. 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 Remarks 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 The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts. 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 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 study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never, in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common, this is to be my symphony. William Ellery Channing Quotes War will never yield but to the principles of universal justice and love. William Ellery Channing Popular Quotes We look forward to the time when the power to love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace. William Ellery Channing Sayings We ought, indeed, to expect occasional obscurity in such a book at The Bible . . . but God's wisdom is a pledge that whatever is necessary for us , and necessary for salvation, is revealed too plainly to be mistaken. William Ellery Channing Sayings 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 Worship God by reverencing the human soul as [God's] chosen sanctuary. Revere it in yourselves, revere it in others, and labor to carry it forward. ...Go forth to respect the rights, and seek the true, enduring welfare of all within your influence. Carry with you the conviction that to trample on a human being, of whatever color, clime, rank, condition, is to trample on God's child. ...Go forth to do good with every power which God bestows, to make every place you enter happier by your presence, to espouse all human interests, to throw your whole weight into the scale of human freedom and improvement, to withstand all wrong, to uphold all right, and especially to give light, life, strength to the immortal soul. William Ellery Channing