21 Dorothy Day Quotes That Will Inspire You to Love Deeper

Dorothy Day, Obl.S.B. (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist, and Catholic convert. Day initially lived a bohemian lifestyle before gaining fame as a social activist after her conversion.

1. “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?”

2. “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”

3. “We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community.”

4. “The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.”

5. “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.”

6. “I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor.”

7. “Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them.”

8. “Charity is only as warm as those who administer it.”

9. “We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.”

10. “The legal battle against segregation is won, but the community battle goes on.”

11. “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.”

12. “Words are as strong and powerful as bombs, as napalm.”

13. “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.”

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

15. “The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up.”

16. “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.”

17. “Love in action is harsh and dreadful when compared to love in dreams.”

18. “My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms.”

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

20.“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.”

21. “The final word is love.”