148 Quotes by William Ellery Channing

All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene.

It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.

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

But the ground of a man’s 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.

I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from Heaven.

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.

In general, we do well to let an opponent’s motives alone. We are seldom just to them. Our own motives on such occasions are often worse than those we assail.

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

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.