William Ellery Channing Quotes

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 listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common - this is my symphony.

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

May your life preach more loudly than your lips.

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

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

Be true to your own highest convictions.

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

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.

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.

Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life

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.

Love is the life of the soul. It is the harmony of the universe.

Mistakes and errors are the discipline through which we advance.

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.

To give a generous hope to a man of his own nature, is to enrich him immeasurably.

Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.

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.

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.

Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.

I am a living member of the great family of all souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself, without diffusing good or evil around me through an ever-enlarging sphere. I belong to this family. I am bound to it by vital bonds.

All virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in self determination. There is no moral worth in being swept away by a crowd even toward the best objective.

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.

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

Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.