William Sloane Coffin

"The danger of television is not that it takes away our time from books, but that it takes away our imagination."

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."

"Love is not weak; it's the strongest force in the universe."

"The church should not ask 'what is good for the church?' but 'what does God require?'"

"Don't be afraid to take a bigger step if one is indicated; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."

"I believe in the so-called 'secular society' of which some people are afraid."

"The greatest religious experience is to do justice."

"Forgiveness doesn't mean excusing; it means excusing ourselves from the destructive business of resentment."

"We are dying from cynicism and apathy, not from want of information."

"The test of faith is whether I love enough to let others go free."

"I love the recklessness of faith. First you believe, then you understand."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."

"The church has to move from supporting the status quo to supporting justice."

"In the final analysis, we are not bound by the chains of our circumstances."

"Despair is a greater sin than any other because it shows we don't trust God."

"Pacifism as a rule of personal conduct is fine, but as a basis of national policy it's suicidal."

"The language of love is universal; all humans understand its grammar."

"Education should teach us to think, not what to think."

"The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference."

"We are not called to success but to faithfulness."

"True revolution lies in loving people beyond their utility."

"Beware of the barrenness of a busy life spent pursuing success without significance."

"The hardest thing about prayer is telling God what you really want."

"Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for all of us."

"The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to matter, to have it make some difference."

"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness."

"It is worth thinking hard about why people are poor and who benefits from their poverty."

"Love demands that we see the humanity in every person."

"The most destructive weapon is the closed mind."

"Time is the medium of faith; faith is the medium of time."