William Sloane Coffin Quotes

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Christ Compassion Country Heart Justice Love Security

There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover's quarrel with their country, a reflection of God's lover's quarrel with all the world.

William Sloane Coffin

Country, Reflection, Two

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.84, Westminster John Knox Press

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

William Sloane Coffin

Love, Life, Truth

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Of God's love we can say two things: it is poured out universally for everyone from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God's love doesn't seek value, it creates value. 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.

William Sloane Coffin

Love, God, Loneliness

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.6, Westminster John Knox Press

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

William Sloane Coffin

Diversity, May, Dangerous

William Sloane Coffin (2011). “The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality”, p.83, UPNE

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Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race. . . Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never. Let us love our country, but pledge allegiance to the earth and to the flora and fauna and human life that it supports - one planet indivisible, with clean air,... soil and water; with liberty, justice and peace for all.

William Sloane Coffin

Love, Life, Country

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Men, Evil, Good Man

William Sloane Coffin (1977). “Once to Every Man: A Memoir”, Atheneum Books

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Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. If your heart's full of hope, you can be persistent when you can't be optimistic. You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing. So while I'm not optimistic, I'm always very hopeful.

William Sloane Coffin

Heart, Optimistic, Independent

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Compassion, Sentimental, Individual

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.23, Westminster John Knox Press

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

William Sloane Coffin

Wings, Firsts, Leap

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.7, Westminster John Knox Press

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Work Out, Justice, Water

William Sloane Coffin “A Passion for the Possible”, Westminster John Knox Press

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Inspirational Love, Men, Greatest Love

William Sloane Coffin (2008). “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin: The Riverside Years”, p.405, Westminster John Knox Press

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

William Sloane Coffin

Life Humor, Incongruity, Handle

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Christians have to listen to the world as well as to the Word - to science, to history, to what reason and our own experience tell us. We do not honor the higher truth we find in Christ by ignoring truths found elsewhere.

William Sloane Coffin

Christian, Honor, World

William Sloane Coffin (2012). “The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality”, p.62, UPNE

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Jesus is both a mirror to our humanity and a window to divinity, a window revealing as much of God as is given mortal eyes to see. When Christians see Christ empowering the weak, scorning the powerful, healing the wounded, and judging their tormentors, we are seeing transparently the power of God at work.

William Sloane Coffin

Christian, Jesus, Powerful

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.12, Westminster John Knox Press

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In reality, there are no biblical literalists, only selective literalists. By abolishing slavery and ordaining women, millions of Protestants have gone far beyond biblical literalism. It's time we did the same for homophobia.

William Sloane Coffin

Biblical, Gay, Reality

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

William Sloane Coffin

Sins Not, Mind, Sin

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.8, Westminster John Knox Press

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

William Sloane Coffin

Ignorance, Self, Violence

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Love, Laughing, World

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

William Sloane Coffin

Believe, Intellectual, Leap Of Faith

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.8, Westminster John Knox Press

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Strong, Temptation, Enemy

William Sloane Coffin (1982). “The Courage to Love”, HarperCollins Publishers

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Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.

William Sloane Coffin

Compassion, Justice, Choices

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.51, Westminster John Knox Press

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

William Sloane Coffin

Spiritual, Unity

"The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin: The Riverside Years".

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

William Sloane Coffin

Spiritual, Godly, Trying

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Achievement, Values

William Sloane Coffin (2004). “Credo”, p.6, Westminster John Knox Press

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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.

William Sloane Coffin

Heart, Mind, Effects

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Born: June 1, 1924
Died: April 12, 2006
Occupation: Activist
Cite this Page: Citation

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