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Quote by Dorothy Day

“There is plenty to do, for each one of us, working on our own hearts, changing our own attitudes, in our own neighborhoods.”

Quote by Dorothy Day

Author

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. more

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“The works of mercy are the opposite of the works of war, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, nursing the sick, visiting the prisoner. But we are destroying crops, setting fire to entire villages and to the people in them. We are not performing the works of mercy but the works of war.”

People War Fire Mercy Opposites Sick Hungry Setting Settings Performing Village Prisoner Destroying Homeless Feeding Crops Nursing Visiting

Author:Dorothy Day

“What we would like to do is change the world...by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world.”

World Poor Rights Cry Workers Circles Around The World Changing The World Ponds Be Confident Pebbles Destitute

Author:Dorothy Day

“In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying ourselves in the mirror of our own futility, and be content to be in Him and to do whatever He wills, according to our limitations, judging our acts not in the light of our own illusions, but in the light of His reality which is all around us in the things and people we live with.”

People Reality Light Order Judging Illusion Mirrors Limitation Futility

Book:Seeds

Source: Seeds

“There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our lives from within. And yet the same instinct tells us that this change is a recovery of that which is deepest, most original, most personal in ourselves. To be born again is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves.”

Force Born Creative Our Lives Originals Instinct Recovery Liberation Renewal Born Again Newness Creative Power

Book:Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation

Source: Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation

“Life consists in learning to live on one's own, spontaneous, freewheeling: to do this one must recognize what is one's own-be familiar and at home with oneself. This means basically learning who one is, and learning what one has to offer to the contemporary world, and then learning how to make that offering valid.”

World Mean Home Offers Oneself Contemporary Familiar Offering Spontaneous

Book:Love and Living

Source: Love and Living

“Either you look at the universe as a very poor creation out of which no one can make anything, or you look at your own life and your own part in the universe as infinitely rich, full of inexhaustible interest, opening out into the infinite further responsibilities for study and contemplation and interest and praise. Beyond all and in all is God.”

Looks Universe Interest Poor Study Rich Creation Possibility Praise Infinite Opening Contemplation

Author:Thomas Merton

“Perhaps peace is not, after all, something you work for, or 'fight for.' It is indeed 'fighting for peace' that starts all the wars. What, after all, are the pretexts of all these Cold War crises, but 'fighting for peace?' Peace is something you have or do not have. If you are yourself at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world. Then share your peace with everyone, and everyone will be at peace.”

Ifs World War Fighting Share Cold Crisis Cold War Pretext

Author:Thomas Merton

“The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of a certain type of Christian thought has seriously impaired this capacity, which nonviolence must recover.”

Mind Christian Life Is Certain Social Humility Type Capacity Missions Alternatives Nonviolence Social Life Rigidity Christian Humility

Book:Thomas Merton: On Peace

Source: Thomas Merton: On Peace

“My own personal task is not simply that of poet and writer (still less commentator, pseudo-prophet); it is basically to praise God out of an inner center of silence, gratitude, and 'awareness.' This can be realized in a life that apparently accomplishes nothing. Without centering on accomplishment or nonaccomplishment, my task is simply the breathing of this gratitude from day to day, in simplicity, and for the rest turning my hand to whatever comes, work being part of praise, whether splitting logs or writing poems, or best of all simple notes.”

“The things I thought were so important -- because of the effort I put into them -- have turned out to be of small value. And the things I never thought about, the things I was never able to either to measure or to expect, were the things that mattered.”

Important Able Values Effort

Book:A Thomas Merton Reader

Source: A Thomas Merton Reader