Quotes from Dorothy Day

The only answer in this life, to the loneliness we are all bound to feel, is community.

One of the disconcerting facts about the spiritual life is that God takes you at your word.

I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor.

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

Certainly we disagree with the Communist Party, as we disagree with other political parties who are trying to maintain the American way of life.

I too complain ceaselessly in my heart and in my words too. My very life is a protest. Against government, for instance.

What I read in the Bible seemed to me to be very much a part of daily life.

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.

You can spend your time agonizing or organizing.

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

I have been disillusioned, however, this long, long time in the means used by any but the saints to live in this world God has made for us.

We must recognize the fact that many Nazis, Marxists and Fascists believe passionately in their fundamental rightness, and allow nothing to hinder them from their goal in the pursuit of their mission.

We believe in loving our brothers regardless of race, color or creed and we believe in showing this love by working for better conditions immediately and the ultimate owning by the workers of their means of production.

An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all.

Dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.

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

True obedience is a matter of love, which makes it voluntary, not compelled by fear or force.

The only solution is love.

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.

Together with the works of mercy, feeding, sheltering, and clothing our brothers, we must indoctrinate.

Your love for God is only as great as the love you have for the person you love the least.

If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other's faults and burdens.

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

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