Quotes by William Ellery Channing

“Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.”

The world is to be carried forward by truth, which at first offends, which wins its way by degrees, which the many hate and would rejoice to crush.

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. this is my symphony.

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.

The home is the chief school of human virtues.

Reading is the royal road to intellectual eminence...Truly good books are more than mines to those who can understand them. They are the breathings of the great souls of past times. Genius is not embalmed in them, but lives in them perpetually.

The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.

Why is it that we are so busy with the future? It is not our province; and is there not a criminal interference with Him to whom it belongs, in our feverish, anxious attempts to dispose of it, and in filling it up with shadows of good and evil shaped by our own wild imaginations? To do Gods 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?

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common - this is my symphony.

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.

a man in earnest finds means, or if he cannot find he creates them. A vigorous purpose makes much out of little, breathes power into weak instruments, disarms difficulties, and even turns them into assistances. Every condition has means of progress, if we have spirit enough to use them.

Difficulties are meant to rouse not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.

One anecdote of a man is worth a volume of biography.

The great hope of society is individual character.

The sages and heroes of history are receding from us and history contracts the record of their deeds into a narrower and narrower page. But time has no power over the name and deeds and words of Jesus Christ.

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

Mistakes and errors are the discipline through which we advance.

We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more.

To live content with small means to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion to be worthy not respectable and wealthy not rich to study hard think quietly talk gently act frankly to listen to the stars and birds to babes and sages with open heart to bear on cheerfully do all bravely awaiting occasions worry never in a word to like the spiritual unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common.

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