Dorothy Day Quotes

The Communists in Cuba didn’t assist Castro in his revolution. They weren’t on the side of the students. They didn’t do anything to help in the invasion or the long-continuing struggle from the Oriente province down.

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

Words are as strong and powerful as bombs, as napalm.

I was always much impressed, in reading prison memoirs of revolutionists, such as Lenin and Trotsky … by the amount of reading they did, the languages they studied, the range of their plans for a better social order. (Or rather, for a new social order.) In the Acts of the Apostles there are constant references to the Way and the New Man.

It’s Godlike to love man – even in his sin – merely because he’s man.

I cannot worry much about your sins and miseries when I have so many of my own. I can only love you all, poor fellow travellers, fellow sufferers. I do not want to add one least straw to the burden you already carry.

We need to change the system. We need to overthrow, not the government, as the authorities are always accusing the Communists ‘of conspiring to teach [us] to do,’ but this rotten, decadent, putrid industrial capitalist system which breeds such suffering in the whited sepulcher of New York.

What I want to bring out is how a pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. And each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that.

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.

I think anarchy is natural to the Catholic. The Church is pretty anarchistic, you know. Who pays attention to the Pope or the Cardinals?

Some have more capacity. Some proceed a few steps along the way. But Christ seemed to love all men. He desired all to be saved.

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.