148 Quotes by William Ellery Channing

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.

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

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

True love is the parent of humility....

Mistakes and errors are the discipline through which we advance.

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.

An earnest purpose finds time, or makes it. It seizes on spare moments, and turns fragments to golden account.

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.

To extinguish the free will is to strike the conscience with death, for both have but one and the same life.