It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.
William E. Channing (1780-1842) American moralist, author, cleric, Unitarian theologian
“Self Culture,” lecture, Boston (Sep 1838)
Quotations by:
Channing, William E.
No matter how poor I am; no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling; if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise; and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live.
William E. Channing (1780-1842) American moralist, author, cleric, Unitarian theologian
“Self Culture,” lecture, Boston (Sep 1838)
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 E. Channing (1780-1842) American moralist, author, cleric, Unitarian theologian
(Attributed)
None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much.
William E. Channing (1780-1842) American moralist, author, cleric, Unitarian theologian
(Attributed)
Quoted by Miguel de Unamuno in The Tragic Sense of Life, and so often attributed to him.