Quotes from Dorothy Day

If we had had the privilege of giving hospitality to a Ho Chi Minh, with what respect and interest we would have served him, as a man of vision, as a patriot, a rebel against foreign invaders.

There is something so horrifying and so sad when people are living alone. That is why the old and lonely come to us.

Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.

Men are beginning to realize that they are not individuals but persons in society, that man alone is weak and adrift, that he must seek strength in common action.

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

The biggest mistake sometimes is to play things very safe in this life and end up being moral failures.

Life itself is a haphazard, untidy, messy affair.

The legal battle against segregation is won, but the community battle goes on.

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.

Men are beginning to realize that they are not individuals but persons in society, that man alone is weak and adrift, that he must seek strength in common action.

Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul.

I believe that we must reach our brother, never toning down our fundamental oppositions, but meeting him when he asks to be met, with a reason for the faith that is in us, as well as with a loving sympathy for them as brothers.

Women think with their whole bodies and they see things as a whole more than men do.

I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us.

We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all.

It is easier to have faith that God will support each House of Hospitality and Farming Commune and supply our needs in the way of food and money to pay bills, than it is to keep a strong, hearty, living faith in each individual around us - to see Christ in him.

Our faith is stronger than death, our philosophy is firmer than flesh, and the spread of the Kingdom of God upon the earth is more sublime and more compelling.

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.

Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.

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.

The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.

You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. You will know. You will know when it's right.

People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.

My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms.