William Channing Quotations

We grow by love . . . others are our nutriment.

There are periods when to dare, is the highest wisdom.

The only God whom our thoughts can rest on, our hearts cling to, and our conscience can recognize, is the God whose image dwells in our own souls.

Let us teach that the honor of a nation consists not in the forced submission of other states, but in equal laws and free institutions, in cultivated fields and prosperous cities; in the development of intellectual and moral power, in the diffusion of knowledge, in magnanimity and justice, in the virtues and blessings of peace.

Of all treasons against humanity, there is no one worse than his who employs great intellectual force to keep down the intellect of his less favored brothers

Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life.

No calculations of interest, no schemes of policy can do the work of love, of the spirit of human brotherhood. There can be no peace without but through peace within.

I have expressed my strong interest in the mass of the people; and this is founded, not on their usefulness to the community, so much as on what they are in themselves.... Indeed every man (sic), in every condition, is great. It is only our own diseased sight which makes him little. A man is great as a man, be he where or what he may. The grandeur of his nature turns to insignificance all outward distinctions.

Ideas are the mightiest influence on earth. One great thought breathed into a man may regenerate him.

He who possesses the divine powers of the soul is a great being, be his place what it may. You may clothe him with rags, may immure him in a dungeon, may chain him to slavish tasks. But he is still great . . . .

We look forward to the time when the power to love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

We look forward to the time when the power to love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

He is to be educated not because he's to make shoes, nails, and pins, but because he is a man.

It is a greater work to educate a child, in the true and larger sense of the word, than to rule a state.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the communion with superior minds. In the best books, authors talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the communion with superior minds... In the best books, authors talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all.

It is mind which does the work of the world, so that the more there is of mind, the more work will be accomplished.

Literature -- the expression of a nation's mind in writing.

It is better to plan less and do more

Man's spiritual nature is no dream of theologians to vanish before the light of natural science. It is the grandest reality on earth.

Most joyful the Poet be; It is through him that all men see

The only distinctions which should be recognized are those of the soul, of strong principle, or incorruptible integrity, of usefulness, of cultivated intellect, of fidelity in seeking the truth.

There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. These are periods when...to dare is the highest wisdom.

What is mysterious, secret, unknown, cannot at the same time be known as an object of faith.

We do not pretend to know the whole nature and properties of God, but still we can form some clear ideas of him, and can reason from these ideas as justly as from any other. The truth is, that we cannot be said to comprehend any being whatever, not the simplest plant or animal. All have hidden properties. Our knowledge of all is limited.

Everything here but the soul of man is a passing shadow. The only enduring substance is within. When shall we awake to the sublime greatness, the perils, the accountableness, and the glorious destinies of the immortal soul?

Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds to the numberless flowers of the Spring; it waves in the branches of the trees and in the green blades of grass; it haunts the depths of the earth and the sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and the setting sun all overflow with beauty. The universe is its temple; and those people who are alive to it can not lift their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side.

Difficulty is the element, and resistance the true work of a man.

Courage considered in itself or without reference to its causes, is no virtue, and deserves no esteem

The wise only possess ideas, the great part of mankind are possessed by them.

Practice makes perfect,So be careful what you practice.

The more a person analyzes his inner self, the more insignificant he seems to himself. This is the first lesson of wisdom. Let us be humble, and we will become wise. Let us know our weakness, and it will give us power.

A single hour a day, steadily given to the study of some interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge.

In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.

I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances, which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own improvement, and acts from an inward spring, from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused.

I do and I must reverence human nature. I bless it for its kind affections. I honor it for its achievements in science and art, and still more for its examples of heroic and saintly virtue. These are marks of a divine origin and the pledges of a celestial inheritance; and I thank God that my own lot is bound up with that of the human race.

The essential and unbounded mercy of my Creator is the foundation of my hope, and a broader and surer the universe cannot give me.

The hills are reared, the seas are scooped in vainIf learning's altar vanish from the plain.

The greatest truths are wronged if not linked with beauty, and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul when arrayed in this their natural and fit attire.

The divine attributes are first developed in ourselves, and thence transferred to our Creator. The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own spiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity. In ourselves are the elements of the Divinity.

The less of government the better, if society were kept in peace and prosperity.