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The great hope of society is in individual character

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
Great
Society
Hope
Individual
Character

More quotes by William Ellery Channing

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I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.
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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No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.
William Ellery Channing
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War is to be ranked among the most dreadful calamities which fall on a guilty world and, what deserves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.
William Ellery Channing
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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.
William Ellery Channing
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I am a living member of the great family of all souls.
William Ellery Channing
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We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure.
William Ellery Channing
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It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the intercourse with superior minds.
William Ellery Channing
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To give a generous hope to a man of his own nature, is to enrich him immeasurably.
William Ellery Channing
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It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great.
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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A man may quarrel with himself alone that is, by controverting his better instincts and knowledge when brought face to face with temptation.
William Ellery Channing
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There is but a very minute portion of the creation which we can turn into food and clothes, or gratification for the body but the whole creation may be used to minister to the sense of beauty.
William Ellery Channing
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The best books for a man are not always those which the wise recommend, but often those which meet the peculiar wants, the natural thirst of his mind, and therefore awaken interest and rivet thought.
William Ellery Channing
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How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.
William Ellery Channing
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I laugh, for hope hath a happy place with me If my boat sinks, 'tis to another sea.
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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Progress, the growth of power, is the end and boon of liberty and, without this, a people may have the name, but want the substance and spirit of freedom.
William Ellery Channing
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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.
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