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.
Dorothy DayI 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 DayWhere were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves, but to do away with slavery?
Dorothy DayThe only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.
Dorothy Day