William Ellery Channing Quotes
William Ellery Channing was an American Unitarian minister, theologian, and one of the most influential moral voices of the early American republic. From his pulpit at the Federal Street Church in Boston he articulated the central principles of nineteenth-century American Unitarianism in his celebrated Baltimore Sermon of 1819 and shaped the religious imagination of Emerson, Thoreau, and the wider Transcendentalist movement. The quotes below are attributed to William Ellery Channing, organized by topic.
William Ellery Channing on Freedom
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Attributed to William Ellery Channing:
“Free thought is more sacred than even free speech.”
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Attributed to William Ellery Channing:
“There is no greater bondage than self-deceit.”
William Ellery Channing on Justice
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Attributed to William Ellery Channing:
“Slavery is the moral disease of civilization.”
William Ellery Channing on Virtue
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Attributed to William Ellery Channing:
“The true sublimity of life is to be found in noble service.”
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Attributed to William Ellery Channing:
“Self-reverence is the foundation of all reverence.”