William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channingwas the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and along with Andrews Norton,, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker in the liberal theology of the day. Channing's religion and thought were among the chief influences on the New England Transcendentalists, though he never countenanced their views, which he saw as extreme. The beliefs he espoused, especially...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth7 April 1780
CountryUnited States of America
God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.
Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.
I am a living member of the great family of all souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself, without diffusing good or evil around me through an ever-enlarging sphere. I belong to this family. I am bound to it by vital bonds.
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.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
All virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in self determination. There is no moral worth in being swept away by a crowd even toward the best objective.
Precept is instruction written in the sand; the tide flows over it and the record is gone; example is graven on the rock, and the lesson is not soon lost.
Poetry reveals to us the loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of youthful feelings, reviews the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the springtime of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human mature, by vivid delineations of its tenderest and softest feelings, and through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life.