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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.

William Ellery Channing

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William Ellery Channing
Age: 62 †
Born: 1780
Born: April 7
Died: 1842
Died: October 2
Pastor
Preacher
Theologian
Newport
Rhode Island
Reverend William Ellery Channing
Men
Enjoy
Superior
Give
Superiors
Best
Precious
Soul
Souls
Book
Minds
Giving
Thoughts
Chiefly
Great
Books
Pour
Mind
Talk
Intercourse

More quotes by William Ellery Channing

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Another powerful principle of our nature, which is the spring of war, is the passion for superiority, for triumph, for power. The human mind is aspiring, impatient of inferiority, and eager for preeminence and control.
William Ellery Channing
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Life is a fragment, a moment between two eternities.
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God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and fill us with the love of truth and virtue.
William Ellery Channing
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Of all the discoveries which men need to make, the most important, at the present moment, is that of the self-forming power treasured up in themselves. They little suspect its extent, as little as the savage apprehends the energy which the mind is created to exert on the material world.
William Ellery Channing
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We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more.
William Ellery Channing
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All that we do outwardly is but the expression and completion of our inward thought. To work effectively, we must think clearly to act nobly, we must think nobly.
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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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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Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life
William Ellery Channing
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Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.
William Ellery Channing
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No punishment is so terrible as prosperous guilt.
William Ellery Channing
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A clear thought, a pure affection, a resolute act of a virtuous will, have a dignity of quite another kind, and far higher than accumulations of brick and granite and plaster and stucco, however cunningly put together.
William Ellery Channing
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God be thanked for books they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.
William Ellery Channing
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He who is false to the present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and you will see the effect when the weaving of a life-time is unraveled.
William Ellery Channing
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Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, with uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life.
William Ellery Channing
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We honor revelation too highly to make it the antagonist of reason, or to believe that it calls us to renounce our highest powers.
William Ellery Channing
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A man might pass for insane who should see things as they are.
William Ellery Channing
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Love is the life of the soul. It is the harmony of the universe.
William Ellery Channing
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Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
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