Dorothy Day

Don't call me a saint; I don't want to be dismissed so easily.

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

What we would like to do is change the world...by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world.

The only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.

Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again.

What I want to bring out is how a pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. And each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that.

When you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them.

Turn off your radio. Put away your daily paper. Read one review of events a week and spend some time reading good books. They tell too of days of striving and of strife. They are of other centuries and also of our own. They make us realize that all times are perilous, that men live in a dangerous world, in peril constantly of losing or maiming soul and body. We get some sense of perspective reading such books. Renewed courage and faith and even joy to live.

If I have achieved anything in my life, it is because I have not been embarrassed to talk about God.

What we would like to do is change the world - make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do.

Tradition! We scarcely know the word anymore. We are afraid to be either proud of our ancestors or ashamed of them. We scorn nobility in name and in fact. We cling to a bourgeois mediocrity which would make it appear we are all Americans, made in the image and likeness of George Washington.

Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them.

What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships?

The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them.

Maybe I was praying for him then, in my own way. Does God have a set way of prayer, a way that He expects each of us to follow? I doubt it. I believe some people-- lots of people-- pray through the witness of their lives, through the work they do, the friendships they have, the love they offer people and receive from people. Since when are words the only acceptable form of prayer?

Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up.

We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.

God meant for things to be much easier than we have made them

Writing is hard work. But if you want to become a writer you will become one. Nothing will stop you.

As Dostoevski said: 'Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.