Top 128 Quotes & Sayings by William Ellery Channing - Page 3

An earnest purpose finds time, or makes it. It seizes on spare moments, and turns fragments to golden account.

My highway is unfeatured air, My consorts are the sleepless stars, And men my giant arms upbear My arms unstained and free from scars.

A man may quarrel with himself alone; that is, by controverting his better instincts and knowledge when brought face to face with temptation.

Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power.

Compassionate Saviour! We welcome Thee to our world, We welcome Thee to our hearts. We bless Thee for the Divine goodness Thou hast brought from heaven; for the souls Thou hast warmed with love to man, and lifted up in love to God; for the efforts of divine philanthropy which Thou hast inspired; and for that hope of a pure celestial life, through which Thy disciples triumph over death.

Science and art may invent splendid modes of illuminating the apartments of the opulent; but these are all poor and worthless compared with the common light which the sun sends into all our windows, which he pours freely, impartially over hill and valley, which kindles daily the eastern and western sky; and so the common lights of reason, and conscience, and love, are of more worth and dignity than the rare endowments which give celebrity to a few.

Life is a fragment, a moment between two eternities.

Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, with uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life.