148 Quotes by William Ellery Channing

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

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.

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.

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

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

Most joyful let the Poet be, it is through him that all men see.

[Peace] is the highest and most strenuous act of the soul, but an entirely harmonious act, in which all our powers and affections are blending in a beautiful proportion, and sustain and perfect one another. It is more than the silence after storms. It is as the concord of all melodious sounds ... an alliance of love with all beings, a sympathy with all that is pure and happy, a surrender of every separate will and interest, a participation of the spirit and life of the universe.... This is peace, and the true happiness of [humanity].

In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition.

Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power.