Top 50 William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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, Jr.

Featured in: Diversity Quotes

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

Featured in: Courage Quotes, Short Quotes About Life, Live Life Quotes, Values Quotes, Passion Quotes

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

4. “I’m not OK, you’re not OK-and that’s OK.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

6. “Christ came to take away our sins, not our minds.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

7. “Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

8. “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, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

10. “The one true freedom in life is to come to terms with death, and as early as possible, for death is an event that embraces all our lives. And the only way to have a good death is to lead a good life. The more we do God’s will, the less unfinished business we leave behind when we die.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

11. “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, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

14. “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, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

16. “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, Jr.

17. “Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

18. “Love is in the giver, not the gift.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

21. “Unity is not something we are called to create; it’s something we are called to recognize.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

22. “We put our best foot forward, but it’s the other one that needs the attention.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

27. “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, Jr.

28. “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, Jr.

29. “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, Jr.

30. “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, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

34. “God knows it is emotionally satisfying to be righteous with that righteousness that nourishes itself on the blood of sinners. But God also knows that what is emotionally satisfying can be spiritually devastating.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

36. “I’m delighted that the future is unsure. That’s the way it should be.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

39. “All of life is the exercise of risk.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

40. “We are not loved because we are valued; we are valued because we are loved.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

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

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

44. “I asked an 85 year old professor, ‘What makes you cry?’ He said, ‘Whenever I see or hear the truth.’”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

45. “Nuclear Weapons merit unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

46. “Isn’t that what growing up is all about – learning to outlast despair?”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

47. “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, Jr.

48. “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, Jr.

49. “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, Jr.

50. “It’s so much easier to beat your breast than to stick your neck out.”

— William Sloane Coffin, Jr.