Quotes from Robert Lawrence Smith

A leap of faith is required if we are to believe that nonviolence can heal a violent world, that turning the other cheek when struck, instead of striking back, can end a fight. We need faith to believe that by loving our enemy we can eventually transform him into an ally; that even when nonviolence fails to achieve peace, it can succeed in curing hate.**

the case for a cooperative business strategy in few words: "The spirit of brotherhood and service should lead all who are engaged in industry to regard each other not as antagonists struggling to win advantages from each other, but as co-operators, sharing with one another in their common purpose to serve their community.

Simplicity, like all virtues, is valuable because it is useful. I have come to understand that making life simpler does for our minds what getting in shape does for our bodies. It makes us feel more in control, more centered, more effective. And as with getting into shape, you have to want it sincerely, and you have to work at it consciously every day.

The roll call of ancestors," he wrote, "includes no figures of outstanding importance in history." Rather, he said, what his book did provide was "a record of men and women who lived active, useful lives, and who gave to their nation and their communities the best that was in them.