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Dorothy Day Quotes

Journalist

Dorothy Day was an American journalist and social activist, born on November 8, 1897, and died on November 29, 1980. She is known for her focus on poverty and labor issues and is considered one of the leading figures in the American social justice movement of the 20th century.

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All People Men Ifs Poor World Believe Way Christ Community Thinking Giving Heart Children Enough Trying Wells Body Saint Whole Communist

Famous Dorothy Day Quotes

“We must always aim for the impossible; if we lower our goal, we also diminish our effort.”

Ifs Goal Effort Impossible Aim Diminish

Author:Dorothy Day

“Often we comfort ourselves only with words, but if we pray enough, the conviction will come too that Christ is our King, not Stalin, Bevins, or Truman. That He has all things in His hands, that 'all things work together for good for those that love Him.”

Ifs Enough Hands Together Christ Praying Kings Comfort All Things Conviction Working Together Truman

Book:On Pilgrimage

Source: On Pilgrimage

“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.”

Ifs Men Giving Interest Vision Privilege Rebel Patriot Hospitality Invaders

Author:Dorothy Day

“Poverty is a strange and elusive thing. ... I condemn poverty and I advocate it; poverty is simple and complex at once; it is a social phenomenon and a personal matter. Poverty is an elusive thing, and a paradoxical one. We need always to be thinking and writing about it, for if we are not among its victims its reality fades from us. We must talk about poverty because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.”

People Ifs Thinking Needs Writing Matter Reality Social Loses Simple Poverty Strange Comfort Sight Victim Complexes Phenomenon Fades Elusive Paradoxical Personal Matter Simple And Complex

Author:Dorothy Day

“If you feed the poor, you're a saint. If you ask why they're poor, you're a Communist.”

Ifs Asks Poor Saint Communist

Author:Dorothy Day

“Think what the world could look like if we took care of the poor even half as well as we do our Bibles!”

Ifs Thinking World Wells Looks Care Poor Half

Author:Dorothy Day

“If you are going to try and change things, you had better have your wits about you.”

Ifs Trying Wit

Author:Dorothy Day

“If you are rushed for time, sow time and you will reap time. Go to church and spend a quiet hour in prayer. You will have more time than ever and your work will get done. Sow time with the poor. Sit and listen to them, give them your time lavishly. You will reap time a hundredfold.”

Ifs Giving Done Hours Church Prayer Poor Quiet More Time Reap

Author:Dorothy Day

“We should live in such a way that our lives wouldn't make much sense if the gospel were not true.”

Ifs Way Should Our Lives

Author:Dorothy Day

“I think one of the things we must constantly keep in mind is, 'If anybody hits you on one cheek, turn the other.'”

Ifs Thinking Mind Turns Cheeks

Author:Dorothy Day

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

Ifs Want Writing Hard Hard Work

Author:Dorothy Day

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

Ifs Inspiration Faith Embarrassed

Author:Dorothy Day

“It is we ourselves that we have to think about, no one else. That is the way the saints worked. They paid attention to what they were doing, and if others were attracted to them by their enterprise, why, well and good. But they looked to themselves first of all.”

Ifs Thinking Way Firsts Wells Attention Paid Saint Enterprise

Book:House of hospitality

Source: House of hospitality

“Do not give to the poor expecting to get their gratitude so that you can feel good about yourself. If you do, your giving will be thin and short-lived, and that is not what the poor need; it will only improvish them further. Give only if you have something you must give; give only if you are someone for whom giving is its own reward.”

Ifs Needs Giving Feels Poor Gratitude Rewards Feel Good About Yourself Expecting Short Lived

Author:Dorothy Day

“An individual can march for peace or vote for peace and can have, perhaps, some small influence on global concerns. But the same individual is a giant in the eyes of a child at home. If peace is to be built, it must start with the individual. It is built brick by brick.”

Ifs Children Home Eye Individual Influence Built Concern Vote Giants March Bricks Eyes Of A Child

Author:Dorothy Day

“Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other's faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much.”

“If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other’s faults and burdens.”

Ifs Enough Bears Faults Burden Love Each Other

Book:On Pilgrimage

Source: On Pilgrimage

“If you have two coats, one of them belongs to the poor.”

Ifs Two Poor Coats

Author:Dorothy Day

“If I did not believe, if I did not make what is called an act of faith (and each act of faith increases our faith, and our capacity for faith), if I did not have faith that the works of mercy do lighten the sum total of suffering in the world, so that those who are suffering on both sides of this ghastly struggle somehow mysteriously find their pain lifted and some balm of consolation poured on their wounds, if I did not believe these things, the problem of evil would indeed be overwhelming.”

Ifs World Believe Problem Pain Suffering Evil Sides Struggle Capacity Mercy Increase Wounds Overwhelming Have Faith Both Sides Consolation Ghastly Problem Of Evil

Author:Dorothy Day

About the Author

Born: November 8, 1897
Died: November 29, 1980
Known for: Journalist
Quotes: 196

Books & Sources

On PilgrimageRelated source material

The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy DayRelated source material

All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy DayRelated source material

The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following JesusRelated source material

House of hospitalityRelated source material

Praying in the Presence of Our Lord with Dorothy DayRelated source material

The Dorothy Day bookRelated source material

The Long LonelinessRelated source material

The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist – A Greenwich Village Journalist's Conversion and Commitment to Peace and JusticeRelated source material

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