Quotes by Dorothy Day

The world was in terrible shape, and Im glad we stood up and said what we believed; but a lot of the time wed say these beautiful things about justice and fairness and equality, but we werent so nice to each other. Wed be jealous and wed gossip, and wed be moody and difficult and rude and inconsiderate. Why do I say we? I mean I would be all that-- and if at the time I ever came near to knowing what Id become, Id dodge, Id duck, Id go on the offensive: the terrible Wall Street bankers. Lots of them were terrible-- and so were lots of us.

I was lonely, deadly lonely. And I was to find out then, as I found out so many times, over and over again, that women especially are social beings, who are not content with just husband and family, but must have a community, a group, an exchange with others. Young and old, even in the busiest years of our lives, we women especially are victims of the long loneliness.It was years before I woke up without that longing for a face pressed against my breast, an arm about my shoulder. The sense of loss was there.I never was so unhappy, never felt so great the sense of loneliness. No matter how many times I gave up mother, father, husband, brother, daughter, for His sake, I had to do it over again.Tamar is partly responsible for the title of this book in that when I was beginning it she was writing me about how alone a mother of young children always is. I had also just heard from an old woman who lived a long and full life, and she too spoke of her loneliness

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.

I dont think God is so jealous about our worship of Him that He will want to separate those who serve His purposes, serve His goodness, because they have read a book, even one written by an atheist, and have been moved, or because they have wanted to be fair all their lives, but have never stepped in a church, from those who have heard Gods words in church or read His words in the Bible and become convinced by them.

Those who cannot see Christ in the poor are atheists indeed.

When we are asked to show our love for God, our desire for him, when he asks us as Jesus asked Peter, Lovest thou me? we have to give proof of it. Lovest thou me more than these, more than any human companionship, more than any human love? It is not filth and ugliness, drugs and drink and perversion he is asking us to prefer him to. He is asking us to prefer him to all beauty and loveliness. To all other love. He is giving us a chance to prove our faith, our hope, our charity. It is as hard and painful as Abrahams ordeal, when he thought he was asked to perform a human sacrifice and immolate his son.

We were just sitting there talking when Peter Maurin came in.We were just sitting there talking when lines of people began to form saying, We need bread.....If there were six small loaves and a few fishes, we had to divide them. There was always bread.We were just sitting there talking and people moved in on us. Let those who can take it, take it. Some moved out and that made room for more. And somehow the walls were expanded.We were just sitting there talking and someone said, Lets all go live on a farm.It was as casual as all that, I often think. It just came about. It just happened.

We suffer these things and they fade form memory. But daily, hourly, to give up our own possessions and especially to subordinate our own impulses and wishes to to others - these are hard, hard things; and I dont think they ever get any easier.You can strip yourself, you can be stripped, but still you will reach out like an octopus to seek your own comfort, your untroubled time, your ease, your refreshment. It may mean books or music - the gratification of the inner sense - or it may mean food and drink, coffee and cigarettes. The one kind of giving up is no easier than the other.

If I had written the greatest book, composed the greatest symphony, painted the most beautiful painting or carved the most exquisite figure I could not have felt the more exalted creator than I did when they placed my child in my arms.

Dont call me a saint. I dont want to be dismissed so easily.

Love is an exchange of gifts, Saint Ignatius had said. It was in these simple, practical, down-to-earth ways that people could show their love for each other. If the love was not there in the beginning, but only the need, such gifts made love grow.

We are communities in time and in a place, I know, but we are communities in faith as well - and sometimes time can stop shadowing us. Our lives are touched by those who lived centuries ago, and we hope that our lives will mean something to people who wont be alive until centuries from now. Its a great chain of being, someone once told me, and I think our job is to do the best we can to hold up our small segment of the chain connected, unbroken. Our arms are linked - we try to be neighbors of His, and to speak up for his principles. Thats a lifetimes job.

Everything a baptized person does every day should be directly or indirectly related to the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

There are two things you should know about the poor: they tend to smell, and they are ungrateful.

There was no attack on religion because people were generally indifferent to religion. They were neither hot nor cold. They were the tepid, the materialistic, who hoped that by Sunday churchgoing they would be taking care of the afterlife, if there were an afterlife. Meanwhile they would get everything they could in this.

No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. Theres too much work to do.

One of the greatest evils of the day among those outside of prison is their sense of futility. Young 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 we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment.

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.

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.

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