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
Reach, Over, Impatient, Eager
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
Own, Your, Consent, Depress
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.
- William Ellery Channing
Great, Over, Superiority, Intellectual
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
Past, Spiritual Life, Heirs
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
- William Ellery Channing
Strength, Meant, Rouse, Conflict
God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.
- William Ellery Channing
Possible, Raised, Another, Imperfection
Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.
- William Ellery Channing
Fix, Your, Almost Everything, Perfection
Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.
- William Ellery Channing
Nature, Ignorance, Mind, Sinned
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
Mind, Always, Which, Peculiar
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.
- William Ellery Channing
Nature, Mind, Cut, Debarred
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
Will, Breaks, False, Weaving
Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.
- William Ellery Channing
Love, Inspirational, Form, Aspiration
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
Love, Thought, Principle, Humblest
No one should part with their individuality and become that of another.
- William Ellery Channing
Another, Should, Part, Individuality
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
Thoughts, Give, Through, Intercourse
It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great.
- William Ellery Channing
More, Conscience, However, Object
Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.
- William Ellery Channing
Better, Condition, Himself, Undoubtedly
Life has a higher end, than to be amused.
- William Ellery Channing
Life, End, Than, Amused
The world is governed by opinion.
- William Ellery Channing
Politics, Opinion, World, Governed
Error is discipline through which we advance.
- William Ellery Channing
Discipline, Through, Which, Error
Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.
- William Ellery Channing
Surface, Measured, Extent, Covers
How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.
- William Ellery Channing
Success, Happiness, How, Amiable
The great hope of society is in individual character.
- William Ellery Channing
Character, Society, Great Hope
The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.
- William Ellery Channing
Happiness, Government, Give, Work Out
All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene.
- William Ellery Channing
Grow, Through, Wiser, Enthusiasms
It is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge which determines the mind's dignity.
- William Ellery Channing
Mind, Quantity, Which, Quality
Every man is a volume if you know how to read him.
- William Ellery Channing
Men, How, Read, Volume
One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.
- William Ellery Channing
Good, Biography, Anecdote, Volume
Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.
- William Ellery Channing
Experience, Which, Ever, Entered
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.
- William Ellery Channing
Character, Other, Meant, Exactly
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
Made, Ideal, Which, So Much Energy
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
Human Being, Abroad, Which, Carry
Do anything rather than give yourself to reverie.
- William Ellery Channing
Give, Rather, Than, Reverie
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
Character, Human Being, His, Intended
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