Peter Maurin Quotes

The world would be better off if people tried to become better. And people would become better if they stopped trying to become better off. For when everybody tries to become better off, nobody is better off. But when everybody tries to become better, everybody is better off.

If we are crazy, then it is because we refuse to be crazy in the same way that the world has gone crazy.

I want a change, and a radical change. I want a change from an acquisitive society to a functional society, from a society of go-getters to a society of go-givers.

In the first centuries of Christianity the hungry were fed at a personal sacrifice, the naked were clothed at a personal sacrifice, the homeless were sheltered at a personal sacrifice... And the pagans used to say about the Christians, "See how they love each other." In our own day the poor are no longer fed, clothed, and sheltered at a personal sacrifice, but at the expense of the taxpayers. And because of this the pagans say about the Christians, "See how they pass the buck."

The world would become better off If people tried to become better. And people would become better If they stopped trying to become better off.

What we give to the poor for Christ's sake, is what we carry with us when we die.

The coat that hangs in your closet belongs to the poor.

The scholars must become workers so the workers may be scholars.

The future will be different if we make the present different.

In the Catholic Worker we must try to have the voluntary poverty of St. Francis, the charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the intellectual approach of St. Dominic, the easy conversations about things that matter of St. Philip Neri, the manual labor of St. Benedict.