William Sloane Coffin Quotes

26 Sourced Quotes

The woman most in need of liberation is the woman in every man and the man in every woman.

William Sloane Coffin
The war against Iraq is as disastrous as it is unnecessary; perhaps in terms of its wisdom, purpose and motives, the worst war in American history... Our military men and women...were not called to defend America but rather to attack Iraq. They were not called to die for, but rather to kill for, their country. What more unpatriotic thing could we have asked of our sons and daughters...?

William Sloane Coffin
In our time all it takes for evil to flourish is for a few good men to be a little wrong and have a great deal of power, and for the vast majority of their fellow citizens to remain indifferent.

William Sloane Coffin
We put our best foot forward, but it's the other one that needs the attention.

William Sloane Coffin
The temptation to moralize is strong; it is emotionally satisfying to have enemies rather than problems, to seek out culprits rather than the flaws in the system.

William Sloane Coffin
Human beings who blind themselves to human need make themselves less human.

William Sloane Coffin
Jesus is both a mirror to our humanity and a window to divinity, a window revealing as much of God as is given mortal eyes to see. When Christians see Christ empowering the weak, scorning the powerful, healing the wounded, and judging their tormentors, we are seeing transparently the power of God at work.

William Sloane Coffin
We have sold our birthright of freedom and justice for a mess of national security.

William Sloane Coffin
Truth is always in danger of being sacrificed on the altars of good taste and social stability.

William Sloane Coffin
Isn't that what growing up is all about - learning to outlast despair?

William Sloane Coffin
It's so much easier to beat your breast than to stick your neck out.

William Sloane Coffin
God knows it is emotionally satisfying to be righteous with that righteousness that nourishes itself on the blood of sinners. But God also knows that what is emotionally satisfying can be spiritually devastating.

William Sloane Coffin
Christians have to listen to the world as well as to the Word - to science, to history, to what reason and our own experience tell us. We do not honor the higher truth we find in Christ by ignoring truths found elsewhere.

William Sloane Coffin
The one true freedom in life is to come to terms with death, and as early as possible, for death is an event that embraces all our lives. And the only way to have a good death is to lead a good life. The more we do God's will, the less unfinished business we leave behind when we die.

William Sloane Coffin
There is nothing anti-intellectual in the leap of faith, for faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation.

William Sloane Coffin
Of God's love we can say two things: it is poured out universally for everyone from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God's love doesn't seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.

William Sloane Coffin
Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of a man all wrapped up in himself.

William Sloane Coffin
I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.

William Sloane Coffin
It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one.

William Sloane Coffin
Christians have no business thinking that the good life consists mainly in not doing bad things. We have no business thinking that to do evil in this world you have to be a Bengal tiger, when, in fact, it is enough to be a tame tabby—a nice person but not a good one. In short, Pentecost makes it clear that nothing is so fatal to Christianity as indifference.

William Sloane Coffin
There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover's quarrel with their country.

William Sloane Coffin
Nationalism at the expense of another nation, is just as wicked as racism at the expense of another race. In other word, good patriots are not nationalists. A nationalist is a bad patriot.

William Sloane Coffin
For like nothing else in the world, hope arouses a passion for the possible.

William Sloane Coffin
Fear destroys intimacy. It distances us from each other; or makes us cling to each other, which is the death of freedom.... Only love can create intimacy, and freedom too, for when all hearts are one, nothing else has to be one—neither clothes nor age; neither sex nor sexual preference; race nor mind-set.

William Sloane Coffin
To show compassion for an individual without showing concern for the structures of society that make him an object of compassion is to be sentimental rather than loving.

William Sloane Coffin
It is terribly important to realize that the leap of faith is not so much a leap of thought as of action. For while in many matters it is first we must see then we will act; in matters of faith it is first we must do then we will know, first we will be and then we will see. One must, in short, dare to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty.

William Sloane Coffin