The “Wayside Pulpit” is a long tradition for Unitarian Universalist congregations. In the old days, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) would print up large poster-size sheets with various inspirational quotes on them, and congregations would purchase those sheets, and post them in signboards outside their church or meetinghouse. Nowadays, the UUA provides free PDFs and you print them yourself.
When we installed a Wayside Pulpit outside the meetinghouse of First Parish in Cohasset, Mass., I started looking for some more (and more recent) quotations to add to the ones I found in the UUA website. I quickly discovered that the web is inundated with spurious quotes, and quotes with inaccurate attributions. Then I noticed that some of the quotes provided by the UUA had problems. As an example, the quotation “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing” gets attributed to Edmund Burke, but the Quote Investigator website states that this attribution is wrong. Or take the quotation that says “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way” — the UUA attributes this to James Freeman Clarke, but I couldn’t find it in Clarke’s published works (which are mostly digitized and easily searchable online), and various online sources attribute this same quote to Napoleon Hill or Martin Luther King, Jr.
After many hours of research, I finally came up with quotes where I had reasonably good evidence that (a) the quote was actually said by the person it’s attributed to, and (b) it represents pretty much the same words that the person actually said or wrote. You’ll find my collection of quotes below, along with attributions showing their source. (In a couple of cases, I shortened quotes so they’d fit into the Wayside Pulpit format; I’ve noted where I’ve done so, and I also give the original wording.) Most of these quotes come from the lists published by the UUA.
Unitarian Universalists are indicated by (UU) after their name.
The Quotes
God heeds not what we say, but what we are and what we do.—William Ellery Channing (UU)
from his “Discourse on the Church,” in The Works of William Ellery Channing (1903), vol. 6, p. 186.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.—Frederick Douglass
from a speech by Douglass, as quoted in Frederick Douglass the Colored Orator, Frederic May Holland, 1891, p. 261.
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.—Edith Wharton
from her long poem “Vesalius in Zante,” North American Review, 1902.
People who look too long upon evil without opposing it go dead inside.—Edith Green
in a speech given to Congress by Hon. Edith Green of Oregon, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Jane Addams, Congressional Record, vol. 106, part 25, September 8, 1960. This quote has been attributed to others; it could be that Green was quoting someone without attribution; but in the absence of contrary evidence, I’m assuming it was by her.
The needs of a society determine its ethics.—Maya Angelou
from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969).
Without adventure civilization is in full decay.—Alfred North Whitehead
from Adventures of Ideas (1933), p. 279.
Great speech is exact and complete. Small speech is merely so much talk.—Zhuangzi
from book 2 of the Zhunagzi, trans. James Legge.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.—Rumi
from The Essential Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks with John Moyne.
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.—Horace Mann (UU)
from :Baccalaureate Address of 1859,: in Life and Works of Horace Mann, vol. V, 1891, p. 524.
Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.—William Wordsworth
from the poem “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey…,” 1798.
Love is a growing up.—James Baldwin
from “In Search of a Majority,” in The Price of the Ticket, p. 234.
Our growing thought makes growing revelation.—George Eliot
from the poem “The Spanish Gypsy” (1868).
Love is a faith, and one faith leads to another.—Henri-Frederic Amiel
from Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frederic Amiel, trans. Mrs. Humphry Ward (1889), p. 94.
The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf.—Shakti Gawain
from Living in the Light, p. 170.
An idea is salvation by imagination.—Frank Lloyd Wright (UU)
from “Two Lectures on Architecture” (1931) in The Essential Frank Lloyd Wright: Critical Writings on Architecture (2010).
Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.—Max Frisch
from his Sketchbook 1946-1949 (1950).
We are all geniuses when we dream.—E. M. Cioran
from The Temptation To Exist (1956).
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.—Martin Luther King
from “The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness” (1960).
It is courage the world needs, not infallibility.—Wilfred Grenfell
from A Labrador Logbook (1938), p. 349.
Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build.—Julia Ward Howe (UU)
from “The Walk with God” (1919).
We create legacy with thoughts and dreams.—Joy Harjo
from Crazy Brace: A Memoir (2012).
In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.—Gandhi
from “Hindu-Muslim Question in India,” Gandhi: Selected Political Writings (1996), p. 110.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.—Martin Luther King
this quote derives from Theodore Parker, and is quoted by King (without attribution, but in quotation marks) in his article “Out of the Long Night” in the Feb. 8, 1958, issue of The Gospel Messenger, p. 14.
It is only love which sets us free.—Maya Angelou
from the poem “A Brave and Startling Truth” (1995).
Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.—Martin Luther King
from “The Casulaties of the War in Vietnam,” talk given on February 25, 1967, The Nation Institute, Los Angeles.
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.—Janis Joplin
according to Quote Investigator, Joplin was quoted as saying this in an article by Patsi Aucoin in the Feb. 16, 1970, issue of the Irving [Texas] Daily News, in an article titled “Maxi-Rap ’70: Students looking at hard facts,” p. 1.
The journey of a thousand miles commenced with a single step.—Daodejing
Daodejing 64, in the James Legge translation; Legge used the Chinese measurement “li” instead of “mile.”
Don’t support the phonies, support the real.—Tupac Shakur
from “Prison Interviews and Interrogations” (1995).
May your life preach more loudly than your lips.—William Ellery Channing (UU)
from “Unitarian Christianity,” the Jared Sparks ordination sermon (1819).
If we are to reach real peace in this world, we shall have to begin with children.—Gandhi
from Young India, Oct. 15, 1931. The actual quote is: “If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on real war against war, we shall have to begin with children.”
All serious daring starts from within.—Eudora Welty
from One Writer’s Beginnings (1984).
Lying is done with words, and also with silence.—Adrienne Rich
from “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying” (1975), p. 187.
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.—Gandhi
from Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13 (3 May 1919).
Memory is where the proof of life is stored.—Norman Cousins (UU)
from The Healing Heart: Antidotes to Panic and Depression (1984), p. 192.
What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?—George Eliot
from Middlemarch, chapter XLIV.
No lie can live forever.—Martin Luther King
from transcript of a speech he gave in Montgomery, Alabama on 25 March 1965.
Blessed are those who dream, for some of their dreams will come true.—Harry Meserve (UU)
from his “Modern Beatitudes,” as reprinted in the July, 2001, issue of the newsletter of the UU Church of Ellsworth, Me., where Meserve was minister emeritus.
As we are, so we associate.—Ralph Waldo Emerson (UU)
from the “Divinity School Address” (1838).
Most people have to talk so they won’t hear.—May Sarton
from A Reckoning: A Novel (1978).
Is silence the answer? It never was.—Elie Wiesel
from “The Holocaust as Literary Inspiration” in Dimensions of the Holocaust: Lectures at Northwestern University, Weisel et al. (1977), p. 19.
Tact is after all a kind of mind reading.—Sarah Orne Jewett
from the chapter “Where Pennyroyal Grew” in Country of the Pointed Firs.
What the earth is, we are.—Walt Whitman
from the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, “We Two, How Long We were Fool’d”; this line was dropped in the 1867 edition.
Never does hatred cease by hating in return.—Dhammapada
from the Dhammapada, Yammakavagga “The Pairs,” v. 5; not clear who translated this, but this is close enough to Max Muller’s translation, “Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time, hatred ceases by love” that we can say it’s from the Dhammapada.
Why should we live in such a hurry and waste of life?—Henry David Thoreau (UU)
from Walden.
God means movement, and not explanation.—Elie Wiesel
from Elie Wiesel: A Challenge to Theology, ed. Graham B. Walker (1988), p. 72.
If you understood everything I said, you’d be me.—Miles Davis
this is quoted in Listen to This: Miles Davis and Bitches Brew by Victor Svorinich (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2015), with a citation, so it appears to be something Davis actually said.
When in doubt, tell the truth.—Mark Twain
from Following the Equator (1899), p. 25.
The more I wonder, the more I love.—Alice Walker
from The Color Purple (1982), where it’s actually “The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.”
Life’s most urgent question is—what are you doing for others?—Martin Luther King
quoted in The Words of Martin Luther King Jr., by Coretta Scott King 2nd ed. (2011), “Community of Man,” p. 3.
Poetry teaches us that everything is connected.—Lucille Clifton
this was quoted in quotes in “Poet Lucille Clifton: ‘Everything Is Connected’” in NPR (2010 Feb 28), where it’s actually “One thing poetry teaches us, if anything, is that everything is connected.”
Hold fast to dreams.—Langston Hughes
from his poem “Dreams.”
We must take care to feed the minds, hearts, and spirits of those coming up behind us.—Joy Harjo
from Catching the Light (2022).
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged.—Rabindranath Tagore
from Stray Birds (1916).
Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts.—Nikki Giovanni
from the poem “Of Liberation” in Black Feeling, Black Talk / Black Judgment (1968, 1970), p. 48.
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.—Henry David Thoreau (UU)
from Walden.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.—Isaac Asimov
from Foundation (1951), where it is said by the character Salvor Hardin.
Most people pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.—Soren Kierkegaard
from Either/Or, trans. Swenson (1959), p. 28; I changed “men” to “people.”
No claims of any and all revelations could be so far-fetched as a single giraffe.—Annie Dillard
from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974).
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore gain wisdom.—Proverbs
trans. George Noyes, Translations from the Psalms and Proverbs, AUA, 1880.
If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury.—Hosea Ballou (UU)
from the Treatise on Atonement (1805).
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety.—Louisa May Alcott (UU)
from Little Women.
To frame the question rightly is the beginning of wisdom.—Kenneth Patton (UU)
from his collection Hymns of Humanity (1980).
We don’t ask for words. We ask for deeds.—Cesar Chavez
from “The Mexican-American and the Church,” speech at 2nd Annual Mexican Conference, Sacramento, Calif., March, 1968.
Kindle the flames of love where people’s sorrows reign.—Norbert Capek (UU)
from his song “Kindle the Flames of Love” (Zapalte obne lasky), reprinted and trans. in Richard Henry, Norbert Fabian Capek: A Spiritual Journey.
There is no graduation from the University of Life.—Imaoka Shinichiro (UU)
from his talk of that title on 3 June 1979, trans. in Cosmic Sage: Imaoka Shin’ichiro, Prophet of Free Religion.
There is no standing still in life. Either we grow or we die.—Dana McLean Greeley (UU)
from “Toward Something Great,” in Forward Through the Ages (1986), p. 105.
Education is one of the blessings of life — and one of its necessities.—Malala Yousafzai
from her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, December 10, 2014.
Hope is not passive. Hope is taking action.—Greta Thunberg
quoted in “‘Blah, blah, blah’: Greta Thunberg lambasts leaders over climate crisis,” by Damian Carrington, The Guardian, Sept. 28, 2021.
When life is difficult, we are not alone in the struggle.—Mark Morrison-Reed (UU)
from the preface to Black Pioneers in a White Denomination, 1994 edition.
And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness.—Anne Frank
from her essay titled “Give,” in The Works of Anne Frank (1959).
Vulnerability is not weakness, it’s our greatest measure of courage.—Brene Brown
from her book Atlas of the Heart (2021).
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.—Henry David Thoreau (UU)
from Thoreau’s Journal, Aug. 5, 1851.
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.—Simone Weil
from an April 13, 1942 letter to poet Joë Bousquet, published in their collected correspondence (Correspondance [Lausanne: Editions l’Age d’Homme, 1982], p. 18).
Chasing curiosity means that my purpose is constantly unfolding in front of me.—Yara Shahidi
from her TED talk “Let Curiosity Lead,” April, 2023.
The holy takes place in our connections to and with one another.—Mr. Barb Greve (UU)
from his piece in UU World “With Diversity Comes Strength” summer 2011.
Love is fearless.—Taylor Swift
from the liner notes to her Fearless album (2008).
Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out.—Tricia Hersey
from her book Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto (2022).
It’s possible to succeed with all of your imperfections.—Karen K. Uhlenbeck (UU)
from “A Personal Profile of Karen K. Uhlenbeck,” S. Ambrose et al., Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering, No Universal Constants (1997), Temple University Press.
We’ve learned from experience that the truth will out.—Richard Feynman
from “Cargo Cult Science,” in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, p. 342.
Like what you do, and then you will do your best.—Katharine Johnson
from her official website; this is likely derived from a passage in her autobiography, Reaching for the Moon: “If you like something, you will do your best” p. 184.
If people had more of a sense of humor, things might turn out differently.—Stanislaw Lem
from Solaris (1961), trans. Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox (1970), p. 184. The original had “man” instead of “people”; “might have turned” instead of “might turn.”
As human beings, we are part of the whole stream of life.—Rachel Carson
from a 1954 speech published in Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson (1998).
We will get to a better state in the end by each playing our small part.—Tim Berners-Lee (UU)
from the online essay “The World Wide Web and the ‘Web of Life'” (1998).
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.—Annie Dillard
from The Writing Life (1989).
I was thinking of the greatness of what was human, and found myself in the divine.—Juan Ramon Jimenez
as trans. by Robert Bly in The Winged Energy of Delight: Poems from Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery.—Albert Schweitzer
from Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology, ed. Charles R. Joy (1947), pp. 102-3. (Joy cites Schweitzer’s Christianity and the Religions of the World, pp. 77 ff.)
True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.—Louis Nizer
from Reflections without Mirrors: An Autobiography of the Mind (1978), p. 94.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.—Thomas Paine
from Rights of Man, part II (1792), chapter V.
Mingling religion with politics may be disavowed and reprobated by every American.—Thomas Paine
from Common Sense (1776). “Inhabitant of America” changed to “American” for brevity’s sake.
The only way to be truly happy is to make others happy.—William Carlos Williams (UU)
from a letter to his mother (1904) published in The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams (1957), e.d John C. Thirlwal, p. 5.
It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers.—James Thurber
from Fables for Our Time (1940).
About the authors
A major concern for many religious liberals these days is knowing what identity or identities can be attributed to authors. However, identity can be complicated. Take the example of William Carlos Williams: he had a Puerto Rican mother and an Anglo father, so what did he consider his identity to be? and what identity would we assign him to? Should we assign Williams to an identity such as Latinx, a category which did not exist in his lifetime? i.e., does he get to choose his own identity, or do we get to choose for him? Because it’s easy enough to find most of these authors on Wikipedia, or your preferred source for information on the Web, I decided to let you do your own research, and draw your own conclusions as to their identity.
I have, however, marked those authors as “UU” to identify those who were or are affiliated with Unitarianism, Universalism, Unitarian Universalism, or a related religious group. Below is a list of their affiliation(s):
Alcott, Louisa May — Unitarian
Ballou, Hosea — Universalist
Berners-Lee, Tim — Unitarian Universalist
Capek, Norbert — Unitarian minister (Czechoslovakia)
Channing, William Ellery — Unitarian minister
Cousins, Norman — Unitarian, Unitarian Universalist
Emerson, Ralph Waldo — Unitarian minister
Greeley, Dana McLean — Unitarian minister
Greve, Mr. Barb — Unitarian Universalist minister
Howe, Julia Ward — Unitarian
Mann, Horace — Unitarian
Morrison-Reed, Mark — Unitarian Universalist minister
Patton, Kenneth — Universalist, Unitarian, and Unitarian Universalist minister
Shinichiro, Imaoka — minister of Tokyo Kiitsu Kyokai, the Tokyo Unitarian Church
Thoreau, Henry David — raised Unitarian, left in part due to lack of anti-slavery activism
Uhlenbeck, Karen K. — Unitarian Universalist
Williams, William Carlos — Unitarian
Wright, Frank Lloyd — Unitarian
Other religious liberals who are authors of the above quotes include:
Asimov, Isaac — loosely affiliated with American Humanist Assoc. and Ethical Culture Society
Dillard, Annie — not a UU, but married in a Unitarian Universalist church
Schweitzer, Albert — accepted a gift membership in the Unitarian Church of the Larger Fellowship late in his life
Tagore, Rabindranath — affiliated with Brahmo Samaj, a liberal Hindu group
Questionable attributions on the UUA list
For your reference, here’s a partial list of some of the questionable attributions I’ve uncovered on the UUA list of Wayside Pulpit quotes.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.” — Edmund Burke. Debunked by Quote Investigator website, clearly not by Burke.
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” — James Freeman Clarke. This is also attributed to Napoleon Hill and Martin Luther King. The earliest citation I found was in the July 1910 issue of “Ideal Power: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Compressed Air and Electrical Appliances” (Ideal Power Publishing Co., Chicago) as follows: “You may not be able to do great things, but you can at least try to do the small things in a great way,” with no attribution. I’m inclined to believe it is one of those late 19th or early 20th C. made-up inspirational quotes that are so common.
“Trouble neglected becomes still more troublesome.” — Confucius. This is most likely not by Confucius. It was apparently quoted in “Apothegms and Proverbs,” Notitia Linguae Sinicae, trans. into French by Premare; from there trans. into English in Confucius and the Chinese Classics: Or Readings in Chinese Literature, ed. and compiled by Rev. A. W. Loomis, p. 353. Loomis gives no source is given for this quote, aside from Notitia Linguae Sinicae. If you wanted to use this quote, I suppose you could say it’s a Chinese proverb, but since it’s a translation of a translation of an unknown source, I’m inclined to leave it out.
“Religious ends are in need of our deeds.” — Abraham Heschel. This appears to be wrong, the actual quote is “…moral and religious ends evoke in us a sense of obligation” from Man Is Not Alone, p. 215. I feel the actual quote carries a significantly different meaning, so I’m inclined to leave it out.
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” — Carl Jung. I cannot find a firm attribution for this. I guess it might be Jung (depending on who translated it), but in the absence of a firm attribution, I’m inclined to leave it out.
“When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.” — Henry J. Kaiser. I cannot find a firm attribution for this. It may be real, but the earliest citation I could find is 1950, in The Journal of the Assoc. for Physical and Mental Rehabilitation, with no citation, and used as a filler quote. So perhaps it’s one of those late 19th or early 20th C. made-up inspirational quotes that are so common.
“Words are so easy; action is so difficult.” — Adlai E. Stevenson. I cannot find a firm attribution. It does not appear on his Wikiquote page.
“Because I have been athirst, I will dig a well that others may drink.” — Arabian proverb. Nope, it’s not Arabian. This appears in Ernest Thompson Seton’s book Two Little Savages as the (very short) preface: “Because I have known the torments of thirst I would dig a well where others may drink. E.T.S.” Seton is no longer considered politically correct, so you might want to think about whether you want to use this quote. At the very least, use Seton’s actual phrasing, and don’t call it Arabian.
“Forgiveness is the final form of love.” — Reinhold Niebuhr. The actual quote is “…we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness,” in Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History (1952). I’m reluctant to warp Niebuhr’s original wording, which carries a clear connotation of Christian notions of salvation.
“The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.” — Richard Moss. Moss is an MD who had a mystical experience and turned that experience into a publishing empire. The quote is widely repeated without a firm attribution to one of Moss’s books. It may well be legit — a quote with similar wording from Moss’s website goes like this: “Your life begins anew in each moment, shaped by the purity of your attention.” But in the absence of a firm citation, I’m not including it. (Honestly, I’m also a little turned off by Moss. If I’m goning to get mystical, I much prefer Eckhart Tolle.)
“It is easier to pay homage to prophets than heed their vision.” — Clinton Lee Scott. I cannot confirm this quote. It sounds like him, but in the absence of a citation, I’m inclined to leave it out.
“There is no hell for any of us to fear outside of ourselves.”— Quillen Hamilton Shinn. Tom Owen Toole cites this as Shinn’s motto in his book The Gospel of Universalism: Hope, Courage, and the Love of God (1993). But Owen Toole does not explicitly say these words were said by Shinn. And the quote does not appear in the collection of Shinn’s writings contained in Faith with Power: A Life Story of Quillen Hamilton Shinn, D.D. (1912) by William H. McGlaflin. In the absence of an actual citation, I’m inclined to leave it out.
“I defy the tyranny of precedent.” — Clara Barton. It looks to me as though these are the words of Barton’s biographer. In the 1922 Life of Clara Barton, biographer William Eleazar Barton wrote: “Having once decided upon a course that defied the tyranny of precedent, she held true…” (p. 359). This appears to have been the source of the quote.
“Hope is passion for the possible.” — Soren Kierkegaard. I cannot confirm this. It might be in one of Kierkegaard’s works, but I’d want to know which work, and who the translator was. (It also sounds a bit too much like one of those made-up quotes from the late 19th C. or early 20th C.) In the absence of a firm attribution, I’m inclined to leave it out.
“There is a story of hope, and we are characters in the story.” — Robert R. Walsh. This sounds a lot like Robbie Walsh, but I cannot confirm this. I wish I could confirm it, because it’s a pretty good quote.
“The world knew you before you knew the world.” — Annie Dillard. It might be by her, but I cannot confirm it. It’s not on her Wikiquote page.
“Thoughtfulness makes no sound.” — John E. Wood. This may be legitimate. John E. Wood (1910-1980) was a Universalist minister, but almost none of his actual writing appears online, so it’s difficult for me to find an original source. This phrase appears in the UUA meditation manual Rejoice Together (2005), in a prayer by Lucinda Duncan, p. 53; but Lucinda could have picked up the phrase from Wood or somewhere else. I wish I could confirm it, because it’s a pretty good quote.
“You need not think alike to love alike.” — Francis David. This was debunked in a UU World article.
“Truth, like surgery, may hurt, but it cures.” — Han Suyin. This quote may be by her, perhaps from her book A Many-Splendored Thing (1952), but I can’t confirm that.
“The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have.” — Lin Yutang (1895-1976). This quote appears several times in publications from 1939 and after, including e.g. a book titled Straight from the Shoulder: Wit, Wisdom, and Philosophies of ed. by Jules Ormont, which has: “The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach,” but with no attribution. Lin wrote an essay titled “The Secret of Contentment,” included in his book On the Wisdom of America (1950), but the quote does not appear in that essay. In Yutang’s book My Country and My People (1935), he does say: “A strong determination to get the best out of life, a keen desire to enjoy what one has, and no regrets if one fails: this is the secret of the Chinese genius for contentment” (p. 62). This could well be the source for the quote. But because of the murky provenance of this quote, I’m inclined to leave it out.