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There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. There are periods when...to dare, is the highest wisdom.

— William Ellery Channing The Union (1829)

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More quotes by William Ellery Channing

God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and fill us with the love of truth and virtue.

Religious instruction should aim chiefly to turn men’s aspirations and efforts to that perfection of the soul, which constitutes it a bright image of God.

Likeness to God (1828)

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

We must watch over pious impressions, and cultivate them, or they will never become vigorous and enduring.

We doubt whether a man ever brings his faculties to bear with their whole force on a subject, until he writes upon it.

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Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1599)

All doubt is cowardice — all trust is brave.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Courage is never born with a person; time and circumstances inject it into a person and bring it forth from within.

Sanu Sharma

Christianity offers reasons for not fearing death or the universe, and in so doing it fails to teach adequately the virtue of courage.

Bertrand Russell Education and the Social Order (1932)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Ellery Channing (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.