William Ellery Channing

One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.

— William Ellery Channing

No punishment is so terrible as prosperous guilt.

— William Ellery Channing

The home is the chief school of human virtues.

— William Ellery Channing

Peace is the fairest form of happiness.

— William Ellery Channing

Knowledge is essential to freedom.

— William Ellery Channing

A man in earnest finds means or, if he cannot find, creates them.

— William Ellery Channing

How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.

— William Ellery Channing

True love is the parent of humility

— 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

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

— William Ellery Channing

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

— William Ellery Channing

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

— William Ellery Channing

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

— William Ellery Channing

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what…

— William Ellery Channing

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

— William Ellery Channing

“It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the intercourse with superior minds...”

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— William Ellery Channing

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— William Ellery Channing

Compassionate Saviour! We welcome Thee to our world, We welcome Thee to our hearts. We bless Thee for the Divine goodness Thou…

— 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…

— William Ellery Channing

To do God's will as fast as it is made known to us, to inquire hourly -- I had almost said each…

— 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…

— William Ellery Channing

Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is this, that the Bible is a book written for men, in the language of men,…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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,…

— William Ellery Channing

Let every man, if possible, gather some good books under his roof.

— William Ellery Channing

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.

— William Ellery Channing

Life has a higher end, than to be amused.

— William Ellery Channing

Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.

— William Ellery Channing

The great hope of society is in individual character.

— William Ellery Channing

Life is a fragment, a moment between two eternities.

— William Ellery Channing

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

— William Ellery Channing

God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.

— William Ellery Channing