Author of quotes: William Ellery Channing

Rather than indulge in dreams, do something.

Without the power of thought, what we call conscience degenerates into dreams, the justification of evil. The most cruel deeds in the world were committed in the name of conscience.

Books are the voices of the distant and departed: they make us the heirs of the spiritual life of past centuries.

No greater calamity can fall on the lot of a people than prosperity at the cost of atrocity.