Dorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist, and Catholic convert. Day initially lived a bohemian lifestyle before gaining public attention as a social activist after her conversion. Inspirational Dorothy Day quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
If you’re searching for inspirational activism quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of profound Elizabeth Cady Stanton quotes, amazing Ella Baker quotes and top Emma Goldman quotes.
Famous Dorothy Day Quotes
Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul. Dorothy Day
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. Dorothy Day
Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily. Dorothy Day
The greatest challenge of the day is how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us? Dorothy Day
First of all, let it be remembered that I speak as an ex Communist and one who has not testified before Congressional Committees, nor written works on the Communist conspiracy. Dorothy Day
Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. Dorothy Day
We cannot build up the idea of the apostolate of the laity without the foundation of the liturgy. Dorothy Day
I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least. Dorothy Day
Words are as strong and powerful as bombs, as napalm. Dorothy Day
Don’t worry about being effective. Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor. Dorothy Day
I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor. Dorothy Day
What we would like to do is change the world make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. You will know. You will know when it’s right. Dorothy Day
We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Those who cannot see Christ in the poor are atheists indeed. Dorothy Day
They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. Dorothy Day
The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them. Dorothy Day
Certainly we disagree with the Communist Party, as we disagree with other political parties who are trying to maintain the American way of life. Dorothy Day
We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship. Dorothy Day
When we have spiritual reading at meals, when we have the rosary at night, when we have study groups, forums, when we go out to distribute literature at meetings, or sell it on the street corners, Christ is there with us. Dorothy Day
True love is delicate and kind, full of gentle perception and understanding, full of beauty and grace, full of joy unutterable. There should be some flavor of this in all our love for others. We are all one. We are one flesh in the Mystical Body as man and woman are said to be one flesh in marriage. With such a love one would see all things new; we would begin to see people as they really are, as God sees them. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Life itself is a haphazard, untidy, messy affair. Dorothy Day
Together with the Works of Mercy, feeding, clothing and sheltering our brothers, we must indoctrinate. Dorothy Day
Writing is hard work. But if you want to become a writer you will become one. Nothing will stop you. Dorothy Day
As for ourselves, yes, we must be meek, bear injustice, malice, rash judgment. We must turn the other cheek, give up our cloak, go a second mile. Dorothy Day
God meant for things to be much easier than we have made them. Dorothy Day
The legal battle against segregation is won, but the community battle goes on. Dorothy Day
As Dostoevski said Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Dorothy Day
The greatest challenge of the day is how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us? Dorothy Day
To love with understanding and without understanding. To love blindly, and to folly. To see only what is loveable. To think only of these things. To see the best in everyone around, their virtues rather than their faults. To see Christ in them! Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Maybe I was praying for him then, in my own way. Does God have a set way of prayer, a way that He expects each of us to follow? I doubt it. I believe some people lots of people pray through the witness of their lives, through the work they do, the friendships they have, the love they offer people and receive from people. Since when are words the only acceptable form of prayer? Dorothy Day
Women think with their whole bodies and they see things as a whole more than men do. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
We are the nation the most powerful, the most armed and we are supplying arms and money to the rest of the world where we are not ourselves fighting. We are eating while there is famine in the world. Dorothy Day
Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor, but at the same time, I felt that it did not set its face against a social order which made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted charity? And it was not just human pride but a strong sense of man’s dignity and worth, and what was due to him in justice, that made me resent, rather than feel pround of so mighty a sum total of Catholic institutions. Dorothy Day
Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them. Dorothy Day
When it comes down to it, even on the natural plane, it is much happier and more enlivening to love than to be loved. Dorothy Day
Dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend. Dorothy Day
The best things to do with the best things in life is to give them away. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Love in action is harsh and dreadful when compared to love in dreams. Dorothy Day
The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor. Dorothy Day
Once a priest told us that no one gets up in the pulpit without promulgating a heresy. He was joking, of course, but what I suppose he meant was the truth was so pure, so holy, that it was hard to emphasize one aspect of the truth without underestimating another, that we did not see things as a whole, but through a glass darkly, as St. Paul said. Dorothy Day
Women think with their whole bodies and they see things as a whole more than men do. Dorothy Day
No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do. Dorothy Day
We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community. 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. Dorothy Day
The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them. Dorothy Day
Everything a baptized person does every day should be directly or indirectly related to the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Dorothy Day
If I have achieved anything in my life, it is because I have not been embarrassed to talk about God. Dorothy Day
I felt, even at fifteen, that God meant man to be happy, that He meant to provide him with what he needed to maintain life in order to be happy, and that we did not need to have quite so much destruction and misery as I saw all around and read of in the daily press. Dorothy Day
The final word is love. Dorothy Day
I don’t 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 God’s words in church or read His words in the Bible and become convinced by them. Dorothy Day
My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms. Dorothy Day
A custom existed among the first generations of Christians, when faith was a bright fire that warmed more than those who kept it burning. In every house then a room was kept ready for any stranger who might ask for shelter; it was even called the stranger’s room. Not because these people thought they could trace something of someone they loved in the stranger who used it, not because the man or woman to whom they gave shelter reminded them of Christ, but because plain and simple and stupendous fact he or she was Christ. Dorothy Day
I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least. Dorothy Day
There are two things you should know about the poor they tend to smell, and they are ungrateful. Dorothy Day
You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. You will know. You will know when it’s right. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Those who cannot see Christ in the poor are atheists indeed. Dorothy Day
God put us here to go through this kind of mental gymnastics, and He certainly put us here to enjoy our sexual lives. He put us here to ask, to try and find out the best way possible to live with our neighbors. Of course, you can go through a life not asking, and that’s the tragedy so many lives lived in moral blindness. Dorothy Day
Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul. Dorothy Day
The world was in terrible shape, and I’m glad we stood up and said what we believed; but a lot of the time we’d say these beautiful things about justice and fairness and equality, but we weren’t so nice to each other. We’d be jealous and we’d gossip, and we’d 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 I’d become, I’d dodge, I’d duck, I’d go on the offensive the terrible Wall Street bankers. Lots of them were terrible and so were lots of us. Dorothy Day
Don’t worry about being effective. Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth. Dorothy Day
The only answer in this life, to the loneliness we are all bound to feel, is community. Dorothy Day
The only solution is love. Dorothy Day
Most of our life is unimportant, filled with trivial things from morning till night. But when it is transformed by love it is of interest even to the angels. 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. 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. Dorothy Day
They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. Dorothy Day
Does God have set way of prayer, a way that he expects each of us to follow? I doubt it. I believe some people lots of people pray through the witness of their lives, through the work they do, the friendships they have, the love they offer people and receive from people. Since when are words the only acceptable form of prayer? Dorothy Day
The Sexual Revolution is a complete rebellion against authority, natural and supernatural, even against the body and its needs, its natural functions of child bearing. This is not reverence for life, it is a great denial and more resembles Nihilism than the revolution that they think they are furthering. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Common sense in religion is rare, and we are too often trying to be heroic instead of just ordinarily good and kind. Dorothy Day
There had been that young Catholic girl in the bed next to me at the hospital who gave me a medal of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. I don’t believe in these things, I told her, and it was another example of people saying what they do not mean. If you love someone you like to have something around which reminds you of them, she told me. Dorothy Day
As we come to know the seriousness of the situation, the war, the racism, the poverty in our world, we come to realize that things will not be changed simply by words or demonstrations. Rather, it’s a question of living one’s life in a drastically different way. Dorothy Day
A philosophy of work is essential if we would be whole men, holy men, healthy men, joyous men. A certain amount of goods is necessary for a man to lead a good life, and we have to make that kind of society where it is easier for men to be good. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Every one of us who was attracted to the poor had a sense of guilt, of responsibility, a feeling that in some way we were living on the labor of others. The fact that we were born in a certain environment, were enabled to go to school, were endowed with the ability to compete with others and hold our own, that we had few physical disabilities all these things marked us as the privileged in a way. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
Love your enemies. That is the hardest saying of all. Please, Father in heaven who made me, take away my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh to love my enemy. It is a terrible thought we love God as much as the one we love the least. Dorothy Day
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. Dorothy Day
