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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
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William Sloane Coffin
Age: 81 †
Born: 1924
Born: June 1
Died: 2006
Died: April 12
Activist
Pastor
New York City
New York
William Sloane Coffin
Jr.
Strong
Satisfying
Problem
Temptation
Enemies
Seek
Culprits
Problems
Moralize
System
Culprit
Enemy
Emotionally
Rather
Flaws
More quotes by William Sloane Coffin
Human beings who blind themselves to human need make themselves less human.
William Sloane Coffin
Without love, violence will change the world it will change it into a more violent one.
William Sloane Coffin
I asked an 85 year old professor, 'What makes you cry?' He said, 'Whenever I see or hear the truth.'
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
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, a reflection of God's lover's quarrel with all the world.
William Sloane Coffin
Love is in the giver, not the gift.
William Sloane Coffin
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
When a man is drowning, it may be better for him to try to swim than to thrash around waiting for divine intervention.
William Sloane Coffin
It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course it's a crutch. What makes you think you don't limp?
William Sloane Coffin
Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life, humor handles the more immediate ones.
William Sloane Coffin
It's too bad that one has to conceive of sports as being the only arena where risks are, [for] all of life is risk exercise. That's the only way to live more freely, and more interestingly.
William Sloane Coffin
In reality, there are no biblical literalists, only selective literalists. By abolishing slavery and ordaining women, millions of Protestants have gone far beyond biblical literalism. It's time we did the same for homophobia.
William Sloane Coffin
It's so much easier to beat your breast than to stick your neck out.
William Sloane Coffin
Isn't that what growing up is all about - learning to outlast despair?
William Sloane Coffin
We put our best foot forward, but it's the other one that needs the attention.
William Sloane Coffin
A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human.
William Sloane Coffin
Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.
William Sloane Coffin
All of life is the exercise of risk.
William Sloane Coffin
The woman most in need of liberation is the woman in every man and the man in every woman.
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
