William Sloane Coffin Quotes

48 quotes in 650 categories

• Love is in the giver, not the gift.
• Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.
• The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence - reverance for human life and the environment.
• Unity is not something we are called to create; it's something we are called to recognize.
• The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.
• Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.
• It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like mighty waters," and quite another to work out the irrigation…
• It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one.
• I'm not OK, you're not OK-and that's OK.
• In reality, there are no biblical literalists, only selective literalists. By abolishing slavery and ordaining women, millions of Protestants have gone far beyond biblical literalism.…
• Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of a…
• Only reverence can restrain violence - reverence for human life and the environment.
• Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.
• The war against Iraq is as disastrous as it is unnecessary; perhaps in terms of its wisdom, purpose and motives, the worst war in American…
• In life you can either follow your fears or be led by your values, by your passions.
• Fear destroys intimacy. It distances us from each other; or makes us cling to each other, which is the death of freedom.... Only love can…
• What is faith? Faith is being grasped by the power of love.
• Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living.
• It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift,…
• People who fear disorder more than injustice will only produce more of both.

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