William Ellery Channing

“It is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge which determines the mind's dignity.”

“Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.”

“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.”

“The home is the chief school of human virtues.”

“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.”

“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.”

“How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Do anything rather than give yourself to reverie.”

“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.”

“Life has a higher end, than to be amused.”

“The mind, in proportion as it is cut off from free communication with nature, with revelation, with God, with itself, loses its life, just as the body droops when debarred from the air and the cheering light from heaven.”

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

“The great hope of society is in individual character.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Great minds are to make others great. Their superiority is to be used, not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge for themselves.”