William Sloane Coffin Quotes

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.

In our time all it takes for evil to flourish is for a few good men to be a little wrong and have a great deal of power, and for the vast majority of their fellow citizens to remain indifferent.

Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.

I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.

The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence - reverance for human life and the environment.

Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of a man all wrapped up in himself.

There is nothing anti-intellectual in the leap of faith, for faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation.

To show compassion for an individual without showing concern for the structures of society that make him an object of compassion is to be sentimental rather than loving.

Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. We can never really love anybody with whom we never laugh. Love is in the giver, not the gift.

It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like mighty waters," and quite another to work out the irrigation system.

The temptation to moralize is strong; it is emotionally satisfying to have enemies rather than problems, to seek out culprits rather than the flaws in the system.

Human beings who blind themselves to human need make themselves less human.

Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living.

Christ came to take away our sins, not our minds.

A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human.

We are not loved because we are valued; we are valued because we are loved.

It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one.

For Christians, the problem is not how to reconcile homosexuality with scriptural passages that condemn it, but how to reconcile the rejection and punishment of homosexuals with the love of Christ.

We must be governed by the force of law, not by the law of force.

To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought.

Human unity is not something we are called on to create — only something we are called on to recognize.

If your heart is full of fear, you won't seek truth; you'll seek security. If a heart is full of love, it will have a limbering effect on the mind.

It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.

People who fear disorder more than injustice will only produce more of both.

When a man is drowning, it may be better for him to try to swim than to thrash around waiting for divine intervention.

All of life is the exercise of risk.

We put our best foot forward, but it's the other one that needs the attention.

In life you can either follow your fears or be led by your values, by your passions.

Every nation makes decisions based on self-interest and defends them on the basis of morality.

We have sold our birthright of freedom and justice for a mess of national security.

Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are.

I asked an 85 year old professor, 'What makes you cry?' He said, 'Whenever I see or hear the truth.'

Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life, humor handles the more immediate ones.

Only reverence can restrain violence - reverence for human life and the environment.

Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.

It's too bad that one has to conceive of sports as being the only arena where risks are, [for] all of life is risk exercise. That's the only way to live more freely, and more interestingly.

We call on all members of America's religious communities, as a testament of our common faith, to join Faithful Security, and to take action immediately to break faith with nuclear weapons.

For finally, we are as we love. It is love that measures our stature.

I'm delighted that the future is unsure. That's the way it should be.

It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course it's a crutch. What makes you think you don't limp?

Without love, violence will change the world; it will change it into a more violent one.

Nuclear Weapons merit unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation

The woman most in need of liberation is the woman in every man and the man in every woman.

I'm not OK, you're not OK-and that's OK.

Isn't that what growing up is all about - learning to outlast despair?

What is faith? Faith is being grasped by the power of love.

Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.

Truth is always in danger of being sacrificed on the altars of good taste and social stability.

Love is in the giver, not the gift.