About William Ellery Channing:
William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and along with Andrews Norton, (1786-1853), 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 within his "Baltimore Sermon" of May 5, 1819, at the ordination of a future famous theologian and educator in his own right, Jared Sparks, (1789-1866), as the first minister (1819-1823) of the newly organized (1817) "First Independent Church of Baltimore" (later the "First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist)"). Here he espoused his principles and tenets of the developing philosophy and theology of "Unitarianism" resulted in the organization later in 1825 of the first Unitarian denomination in America (American Unitarian Association) and the later developments and mergers between Unitarians and Universalists resulting finally in the Unitarian Universalist Association of America in 1961.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
William Ellery ChanningFix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.
William Ellery ChanningAll noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene.
William Ellery ChanningUndoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.
William Ellery ChanningInfluence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.
William Ellery Channing