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William Ellery Channing Quotes
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Contempt of all outward things, which come in competition with duty, fulfills the ideal of human greatness. This conviction, that readiness to sacrifice life's highest material good and life itself, is essential to the elevation of human nature, is no illusion of ardent youth, nor outburst of blind enthusiasm. It does not yield to growing wisdom. It is confirmed by all experience. It is sanctioned by conscience — that universal and eternal lawgiver whose chief dictate is, that every thing must be yielded up for the right.
William Ellery Channing
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Let us aspire towards this living confidence, that it is the will of God to unfold and exalt without end the spirit that trusts itself to Him in well-doing as to a faithful Creator.
William Ellery Channing
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Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power.
William Ellery Channing
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My highway is unfeatured air, My consorts are the sleepless stars, And men my giant arms upbear My arms unstained and free from scars.
William Ellery Channing
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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.
William Ellery Channing
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Labor is discovered to be the grand conqueror, enriching and building up nations more surely than the proudest battles.
William Ellery Channing
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A man in earnest finds means or, if he cannot find, creates them.
William Ellery Channing
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The fewer the voices on the side of truth, the more distinct and strong must be your own.
William Ellery Channing
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Perhaps in our presence, the most heroic deed on earth is done in some silent spirit, the loftiest purpose cherished, the most generous sacrifice made, and we do not suspect it. I believe this greatness to be most common among the multitude, whose names are never heard.
William Ellery Channing
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One of the tremendous evils of the world, is the monstrous accumulation of power in a few hands.
William Ellery Channing
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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.
William Ellery Channing
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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.
William Ellery Channing
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Most joyful let the Poet be, it is through him that all men see.
William Ellery Channing
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In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition.
William Ellery Channing
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The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts.
William Ellery Channing
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The domestic relations precede, and in our present existence are worth more than all our other social ties. They give the first throb to the heart, and unseal the deep fountains of its love. Home is the chief school of human virtue. Its responsibilities, joys, sorrows, smiles, tears, hopes, and solicitudes form the chief interest of human life.
William Ellery Channing
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Others are affected by what I am, and say, and do. So that a single act of mine may spread and spread in widening circles, through a nation or humanity. Through my vice I intensify the taint of vice throughout the universe. Through my misery I make multitudes sad. On the other hand, every development of my virtue makes me an ampler blessing to my race. Every new truth that I gain makes me a brighter light to humanity.
William Ellery Channing
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The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect, and virtues.
William Ellery Channing
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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.
William Ellery Channing
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Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life
William Ellery Channing
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Health is the working man's fortune, and he ought to watch over it more than the capitalist over his largest investments. Health lightens the efforts of body and mind. It enables a man to crowd much work into a narrow compass. Without it, little can be earned, and that little by slow, exhausting toil.
William Ellery Channing
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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.
William Ellery Channing
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To do God's will as fast as it is made known to us, to inquire hourly -- I had almost said each moment -- what He requires of us, and to leave ourselves, our friends, and every interest at His control, with a cheerful trust that the path which He marks out leads to our perfection and to Himself, -- this is at once our duty and happiness; and why will we not walk in the plain, simple way?.
William Ellery Channing
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To extinguish the free will is to strike the conscience with death, for both have but one and the same life.
William Ellery Channing
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Let every man, if possible, gather some good books under his roof.
William Ellery Channing
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Quote of the day
Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.
John Betjeman
William Ellery Channing
Creative Commons
Born:
April 7, 1780
Died:
October 2, 1842
(aged 62)
Bio:
William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians.
Known for:
My Symphony
Unitarian Christianity and other essays
The Works of William E. Channing (1840)
Discourses On War
Most used words:
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
American Essayist
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Margaret Fuller
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William Ellery Channing (poet)
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