William Ellery Channing Quotes

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William Ellery Channing

Profession : Writer

Birth : April 7, 1780

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.

William Ellery Channing

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

The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

William Ellery Channing

Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.

William Ellery Channing

One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.

William Ellery Channing

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

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

Every human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influence to exert, which are peculiarly his, and which no conscience but his own can teach.

William Ellery Channing

It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great.

William Ellery Channing

Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul, that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love, and this may be found in the humblest condition of life.

William Ellery Channing

Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.

William Ellery Channing

The reveries of youth, in which so much energy is wasted, are the yearnings of a Spirit made for what it has not found but must forever seek as an Ideal.

William Ellery Channing