- It would go a great way to caution and direct People in their Use of the World, that they were better studied and known in the Creation of it. For how could Man find the Confidence to abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the Face, in all and every part thereof?
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Force may subdue, but Love gains: And he that forgives first, wins the Lawrel.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - No clear impressions, either from above or from without, can be received by a mind turbid with excitement and agitated by a crowd of distractions. The stillness needed for the clear shining of light within is incompatible with hurry.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - This is to me the hour of greatest joy I ever had in this world. No ear can hear, no tongue can utter, and no heart can understand the sweet incomes and the refreshings of the spirit of the Lord, which I now feel.
~ Mary Dyer, 1611-1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - I was plain, and would have all things done plainly; for I did not seek any outward advantage to myself.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Now I find that in a state of pure obedience the mind learns contentment in appearing weak and foolish to that wisdom which is of the world; and in these lowly labors, they who stand in a low place and are rightly exercised under the cross will find nourishment.
~ John Woolman, 1720-1772
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The light checks you, when you speak an evil word,
and tells you that you should not be proud or unrestrained,
nor fashion yourselves like the world;
for the fashion of this world passes away.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - All that dwell in the light, their habitation is in God, and they know a hiding place in the day of storm; and those who dwell in the light, are built upon the rock, and cannot be moved, for who are moved or shaken, goes from the light, and so goes from their strength, and from the power of God, and loses the peace and the enjoyment of the presence of God.
~ Edward Burrough, 1634-1663
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - True silence is the rest of the mind; and is to the spirit, what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The winter tree Resembles me,
Whose sap lies in its root:
The spring draws near
As it, so I Shall bud, I hope, and shoot.
~ Thomas Ellwood, 1639-1714
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - I believe there is something in the mind, or in the heart, that shows its approbation when we do right. I give myself this advice: Do not fear truth, let it be so contrary to inclination and feeling. Never give up the search after it: and let me take courage, and try from the bottom of my heart to do that which I believe truth dictates, if it leads me to be a Quaker or not.
~ Elizabeth Fry, 1780-1845
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - We are not for Names, nor Men, nor Titles of Government, nor are we for this Party, nor against the other, because of its Name and Pretence; but we are for Justice and Mercy, and Truth and Peace, and true Freedom, that these may be exalted in our Nation.
~ Edward Burrough, 1634-1663
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is but little need to spend time with foolish diversions for time flies away so swiftly by itself; and, when once gone, is never to be recalled.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - 2/29/2016
If you do any thing in your own wills, then you tempt God; but stand still in that power that brings peace.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Abundantly sufficient for our help is the grace afforded us! Let all but keep to it, and then safe are their steppings, and sure their preservation; for, however severe their trials, the Lord will be near them.
~ Job Scott, 1751-1793
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Mind the light of God in your consciences,
which will show you all deceit;
dwelling in it, guides out of the many things into one spirit,
which cannot lie, nor deceive.
Those who are guided by it, are one.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - But in the central innermost region of our minds there shines one pure ray of direct Light from the very Throne of God ; one ray which belongs to each one individually ; which is for that one supreme and apart; the ray which shining from the heavenward side of conscience, and so enlightening and purifying it, must of necessity dominate the whole being.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The old man worships a God at a distance, but knows Him not, nor where He is, but by relation from others, either by word or writing… The new man worships a God at hand, where He dwells in His holy temple, and he knows Him by His own Word from His dwelling-place, and not by relation of others.
~ James Nayler, 1616-1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Mind the light of God in your consciences,
which will show you all deceit;
dwelling in it, guides out of the many things into one spirit,
which cannot lie, nor deceive.
Those who are guided by it, are one.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is something of God in every man, let us affirm it more certainly than ever, but surrounded as we are by millions of new-made graves and with the voices of the hungry and the dispossessed in our ears, let us not easily accept the impious hope that the natural goodness of ourselves is sufficient stuff out of which to fashion a better world.
~ Gilbert H. Kilpack, 1914-1999
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - “Forever round the Mercy-seat
The guiding lights of Love shall burn;
But what if, habit-bound, thy feet
Shall lack the will to turn?“What if thine eye refuse to see,
Thine ear of Heaven’s free welcome fail,
And thou a willing captive be,
Thyself thy own dark jail?
~ John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - O! make room for Christ in your hearts, or else He is never like to dwell with you; He loves to dwell with the poor and humble and contrite spirit, He abhors the proud, He will empty your souls, that He may fill them. ~ William Dewsbury, 1621-1688
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The want of faith in the word and power of God within, and the neglect of hearing the still, small voice thereof, is the ground and cause of all ignorance, errors, darkness, and confusion among men, of all sects and sorts of religion upon the face of the whole earth. ~ William Shewen, 1631-1695
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The Seed, or Grace of God, is small in its first Appearance, even as the Morning Light; but as it is given Heed to, and obeyed, it will increase in Brightness, till it shine in the Soul, like the Sun in the Firmament at its Noon-day Height. ~ Elizabeth Bathurst, 1655-1685
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - This day of the Lord, which is eternal brightness, appears in the heart; and the dawning and breaking forth of it is to be waited for there; and as it is witnessed, it manifests evil, and brings it to light, and declares against what is contrary to its own nature. ~ Francis Howgill, 1618-1688
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Men are too apt to let their heads outrun their hearts, and their notions exceed their obedience, and their passions support their conceits, instead of a daily cross, a constant watch, and a holy practice. ~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - 10/23/2015
Nothing does reason more right, than the coolness of those who offer it, for truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers. ~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Stand still in that which is pure. ~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - And dwell in that which is pure of God in you,
for fear that your thoughts get forth, and then evil thoughts get up,
and surmising one against another,
which arises out of the veiled mind, which darkens the pure discerning.
But as you dwell in that which is of God,
it guides you up out of the elementary life,
and out of the mortal into the immortal,
which is hidden from all the fleshly ones,
where is peace and joy eternal to all who can witness the new birth.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Look not out, but within… Remember it is a still voice that speaks to us in this day, and that it is not to be heard in the noises and hurries of the mind; but it is distinctly understood in a retired frame.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Art thou in darkness? mind it not, for if thou do it will fill thee more, but stand still and act not, and wait in patience till light arise out of darkness to lead thee.
~ James Nayler, 1616-1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - I look not to myself, but to that within me, that has to my admiration proved to be my present help, and enabled me to do what I believe of myself I could not have done.
~ Elizabeth Fry, 1780-1845
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Whoever would be able, in the life, to do all things, let him sink into that in himself which is not, that it may bring to nought all things in him that are; that so it alone may be: and he by it being brought to nothing, will easily become all in it.
~ Isaac Penington, 1616-1679
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - You have had plenty of words outwardly, but to hearken to the word inwardly, is better than all; for that is both able to comfort at present, and save for ever.
~ John Crook, 1617-1699
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Do not make the way to heaven easier in your minds and imaginations than indeed it is; and think it sufficient to live in an outward observance of the ways of God. If your own wills are alive, and your corruptions remain un-mortified, the judgment of God will be your portion. Therefore, in the Lord’s name, come along with me, I have come to declare what I have heard and seen of the Father. Come and examine your conscience. Have you brought your deeds to the light?
~ William Dewsbury, 1621-1688
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - To do evil that good may come of it is contrary to the doctrine of Christianity; that when times are so cloudy that we cannot go forward in the way of clearness and purity, it behooves us in the depth of humility to wait on the Lord to know his mind concerning us and our children.
~ John Woolman, 1720-1772
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - O Spirit of that early day,
So pure and strong and true,
Be with us in the narrow way
Our faithful fathers knew.
Give strength the evil to forsake,
The cross of Truth to bear,
And love and reverent fear to make
Our daily lives a prayer!
~ John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Sing and rejoice,
you children of the day and of the light;
for the Lord is at work in this thick night of darkness that may be felt.
And truth flourishes as the rose,
and the lilies do grow among the thorns,
and the plants atop of the hills,
and upon them the lambs do skip and play.
And never heed the tempests nor the storms, floods nor rains,
for the seed Christ is over all, and reigns.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Sweet is this state, though low: for in it I receive my daily bread, which is
given of the Lord; for I cannot live to him, but as he breathe the breath of life upon me every moment.
~ Mary Penington, 1623-1682
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - And if you love the light, then you come to the light to be proved, and tried whether your works be wrought in God. But that which hates the light, turns from the light, and that shall be condemned by the light forever. And though you may turn from the light, where the unity is, and you may turn from the eternal truth; but from the witness of God in your consciences, (which he hath placed in you, which beareth witness for the living God,) you can never fly; that shall pursue you wherever you go.
~ Margaret Fell, 1614-1702
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The love of God again makes us free, for it draws us to set a low value on those things wherein we are subject to others – our wealth, our position, our reputation, and our life – and to set a high value on those things which no man can take from us – our integrity, our righteousness, our love for all men, and our communion with God.
~ Kenneth Boulding, 1910-1993
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is no way to find yourself until you discover how utterly to lose yourself.
~ Rufus Jones, 1863-1948
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Whatever a man trusts in, that he makes his God, whether it is gold or silver, or the honors and pleasures of this world; if he trusts in these things, he makes them his God.
~ Stephen Crisp, 1628-1692
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - All bloody principles and practices, we, as to our own particulars, do utterly deny, with all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world.
~ George Fox, Gerald Roberts, Henry Fell, Richard Hubberthorn, John Boulton, John Hinde, John Stubbs, Leonard Fell, John Furley Jnr., Francis Howgill, Samuel Fisher, Thomas Moore, 1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Only wait to know that wherein God appears in thy heart, even the holy seed, the immortal seed of life; that that may be discerned, distinguished, and have scope in thee; that it may spring up in thy heart, and live in thee, and gather thee into itself, and leaven thee all over with its nature; that thou mayst be a new lump, and mayst walk before God, not in the oldness of thy own literal knowledge or apprehensions of things, but in the newness of his Spirit.
~ Isaac Penington, 1616-1679
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - All people, look no longer forth; the glad tidings of the gospel of eternal salvation is heard within, in this day of the Lord’s mercies, in which he is teaching his people himself, as was declared by the prophet Isaiah 54:13, and is now witnessed by all the children of light, whose minds are turned within to wait on the Lord for his teaching, to establish them in the covenant of life and peace…
~ William Dewsbury, 1621-1688
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Inner silence, calming the agitations of our hearts and minds, letting go of all that is stubborn and grasping, is essentially an expression of the love of truth. To be dispassionate, not to let one’s own needs or prejudices or emotions color one’s actions, is essentially to put truth before everything else. To love truth in this way is to love God, who is Truth. Thus the practice of inner silence is the same as the love of God.
~ Dan Seeger, 1934-
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - To end war and violence means having a better world, but that is impossible unless the people in it grow better. No relationship is finer than the people who compose it. Those who are endeavoring to abolish war, therefore, must themselves strive hard to become better people by living better lives.
~ Richard Gregg, 1885-1974
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The way, like the cross, is spiritual: that is an inward submission of the soul to the will of God, as it is manifested by the light of Christ in the consciences of men, though it be contrary to their own inclinations.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Now thou must die in the silence, to the fleshly wisdom, knowledge, reason, and understanding; so thou comest to feel that which brings thee to wait upon God; (thou must die from the other,) that brings thee to feel the power of an endless life, and come to possess it.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Therefore, my dear Friends, keep your watch everyone in your hearts continually, that you may not be betrayed from that pure life, that yields virtue unto your souls, and nourishes up unto eternal life.
~ John Burnyeat, 1631-1690
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Nothing, I believe, can really teach us the nature and meaning of inspiration but personal experience of it. That we may all have such experience if we will but attend to the divine influences in our own hearts, is the cardinal doctrine of Quakerism.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Therefore hear instruction and be wise, while the good Spirit of the Lord is nigh to teach you; seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near; and refuse not to hearken to his heavenly Oracle in your Consciences…
~ Elizabeth Bathurst, 1655?-1685
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Truth will not lose ground by being tried.
~ Isaac Penington, 1616-1679
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - O brother man!
fold to thy heart thy brother;
Where pity dwells,
the peace of God is there;
To worship rightly
is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn,
each kindly deed a prayer.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Keep close to the Light and own it alone to be your teacher, guide, and counselor in all the way through which you are to pass, and in all things that you are to do. Stand in the denial of self and all its goals; and own the Light, which leads into singleness of mind unto God away from selfish ends.
~ James Parnell, 1637?-1656
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Thus He whose tender mercies are over all His works hath placed a principle in the human mind, which incites to exercise goodness towards every living creature; and this being singly attended to, people become tender-hearted and sympathizing; but when frequently and totally rejected, the mind becomes shut up in a contrary disposition.
~ John Woolman, 1720-1772
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - But as there is a keeping back, and quietly waiting, and a keeping out of willing or running, and haste, the spirit arises purely and stilly in the heart, and gives perfect evidence and full testimony of itself; so that there needs to be no doubting nor questioning of its motion; for it shows forth itself with full assurance of its own will.
~ Francis Howgill, 1618-1688
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Words may help and silence may help, but the one thing needful is that the heart should turn to its Maker as the needle turns to the pole. For this we must be still.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Men not living to what they know, cannot blame God, that they know no more.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Follow steadfastly after all that is pure and lovely and of good report. Be prayerful. Be watchful. Be humble. Let no failure discourage you. When temptation comes, make it an opportunity to gain new strength by standing fast, that you may enter into that life of gladness and victory to which all are called.
~ Ohio Yearly Meeting Book of Discipline, 1992
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - War has no cause except the intention of governments to resort to it.
~ Ira De Augustine Reid, 1901-1968
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Wherefore, brethren, let us be careful neither to out-go our guide, nor yet loiter behind him; since he that makes haste, may miss his way, and he that stays behind, lose his guide.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Paradoxically, life is worth living for those who have something for which they will gladly give up life.
~ A. J. Muste, 1885-1967
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Only the inner vision of God, only the God-blindedness of unreservedly dedicated souls, only the utterly humble ones can bow and break the raging pride of a power-mad world.
~ Thomas Kelly, 1893-1941
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.
~ George Fox, Gerald Roberts, Henry Fell, Richard Hubberthorn, John Boulton, John Hinde, John Stubbs, Leonard Fell, John Furley Jnr., Francis Howgill, Samuel Fisher, Thomas Moore
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is no hearing his gracious voice, but by humbling ourselves under his mighty power. Then doth he make known his will, and blessed are they that hear his word and obey it, that know his will and do it.
~ Elizabeth Stirredge, 1634-1706
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - That which makes a people blessed and happy, is, that they hear and obey the still small voice, which says, this is the way, walk in it. This is the voice of the true shepherd, and the sheep know it, follow it and obey it, and a stranger they will not hear nor follow.
~ William Shewen, 1631-1695
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - A good end cannot purify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, so that good may come of it.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - As to the life and substance of it, there never was but one true religion; nothing has ever been such, but the immediate inward work of God in man.
~ Job Scott, 1751-1793
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Be still and cool in your own mind and spirit from your own thoughts, and then you will feel the principle of God to turn your mind to the Lord God, from whom life comes; whereby you may receive his strength and power to allay all blusterings, storms, and tempests.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The unlocking of cosmic power and love can be accomplished if you will become utterly, completely obedient to the Light within you.
~ Cecil Hinshaw, 1911-1982
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Strange and unendurable irony — that Friends who speak so much about the Inward Light should so timidly hide their own light under a bushel! The time has come to preach the faith we have resolved to practice. If we have good news for our brothers, and I believe we do, let us shout it from the housetops!
~ John Yungblut, 1913-1995
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The likeness we bear to Jesus is more essential than our notions of him.
~ Lucretia Mott, 1793-1880
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is a principle which is pure placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath had different names; it is, however, pure, and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion, nor excluded from any, when the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, they become brethren.
~ John Woolman, 1720-1777
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Simplicity is the name we give to our effort to free ourselves to give full attention to God’s still, small voice: the sum of our efforts to subtract from our lives everything that competes with God for our attention and clear hearing.
~ Lloyd Lee Wilson, 1947-
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - This then is the way of redemption; to wait to feel the appearance of the light of the Spirit in the heart; and, at its least or lowest appearance, to be turned from the darkness towards it.
~ Isaac Penington, 1616-1679
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is a quiet, open place in the depths of the mind, to which we can go many times in the day and lift up our soul in praise, thankfulness and conscious unity. With practise this God-ward turn of the mind becomes an almost constant direction, underlying all our other activities.
~ Kenneth Boulding, 1910-1993
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Wherefore give all diligence to the Spirit’s motion and leadings, what it moves against, and what it leads to; for now will God make all things new: A new creation, new heavens, and new earth, and new heart and mind, and a new law, a new man to walk therein with his Maker with cheerfulness, and the old bonds are broken by the Spirit’s leading, and to serve in newness of spirit.
~ James Nayler, 1616-1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The best recreation is to do good.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - If but one man or woman were raised by his power, to stand and live in the same spirit that the prophets and apostles were in who gave forth the scriptures, that man or woman should shake all the country in their profession for ten miles round.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Peace is a gift, but it does not come magically through our passivity. Only in our faithful response to God’s call do we receive God’s peace.
~ Sandra Cronk, 1942-2000
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The only way to seek God is to seek God first. Deny the nayward, affirm the yeaward, be true to those stirrings and motions which He starts in us, refuse priority to all else, and be faithful to the sacred.
~ Jean Toomer, 1894-1967
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Now, Friends, deal plainly with yourselves, and let the eternal Light search you, and try you, for the good of your souls. For this will deal plainly with you. It will rip you up, and lay you open, and make all manifest which lodges in you; the secret subtlety of the enemy of your souls, this eternal searcher and trier will make manifest. Therefore all to this come, and by this be searched, and judged, and led and guided. For to this you must stand or fall.
~ Margaret Fell, 1614-1702
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Seek first the Kingdom of God. Everything else must stand aside—personal, family or national interest—yea, life itself. No half-measures will ever succeed in efforts for that Kingdom which aims at turning the world upside down.
~ Max I. Reich, 1867-1945
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - To the extent that the blessing of peace is achieved by humankind, it will not be achieved because people have outraced each other in the building of armaments, nor because we have outdebated each other with words, nor because we have outmaneuvered each other in political action, but because more and more people in a silent place in their hearts are turned to those eternal truths upon which all right living is based. It is on the inner drama of this search that the unfoldment of the outer drama of history ultimately depends.
~ Dan Seeger, 1934-
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Take heed of pleasures, and prize your time now while you have it; do not spend it in pleasures or earthliness. The time may come that you will say; you had time, when it is past.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - … for when I came into the silent assemblies of God’s people I felt a secret power among them which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up …
~ Robert Barclay, 1648-1690
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Let us no longer be blinded by the dim theology that only in the far seeing vision discovers a millennium, when violence shall no more be heard in the land wasting nor destruction in her borders; but let us behold it now, nigh at the door lending faith and confidence to our hopes, assuring us that even we ourselves shall be instrumental in proclaiming liberty to the captive.
~ Lucretia Mott, 1793-1880
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - It is therefore indisputable, that the Christians who lived nearest to the time of our Saviour believed, with undoubting confidence, that he had unequivocally forbidden war; and they openly avowed this belief; and that, in support of it, they were willing to sacrifice, and did sacrifice, their fortunes and their lives.
~ Jonathan Dymond, 1796-1828
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - We know that the principles of our faith teach that we can be filled with the same life and power and spirit that produced the prophets and saints of the past, but that knowledge has not made prophets and saints out of us. God waits for us to add to that knowledge the willingness to obey the Light consistently and completely.
~ Cecil Hinshaw, 1911-1982
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Now this testimony I must leave to the world, that God has sent his good Spirit into the hearts of the children of men, to be their guide, leader and director in all things relating to his kingdom; and upon the receiving and obeying, or resisting and disobeying this Spirit, stands man’s eternal felicity or woe, for nothing short of it can give mankind the knowledge of the mysteries of God’s salvation; and all knowledge without it, is earthly and carnal, and can never give life to the soul.
~ Ambrose Rigge, 1616-1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - And I can speak it to the glory of God, he never moved me to any thing, but that he gave me Power to perform it, and made it effectual, although I past through much Exercise in the performance of it. And the Power of God wrought in me long before I knew what it was; and when Friends came, that my understanding was opened, I soon took up the Cross and came into the Obedience, and the Lord cleansed me by his Power, and made me a fit Vessel for his Use.
~ Barbara Blaugdone, 1609-1704
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Everything, all beauty and rightness, seems to turn upon a right subordination of the outward to the inward, the transient to the permanent, in our lives and thoughts. Yet this right subordination cannot be achieved in a hurry. If we are to learn to assign to the weightiest matters their true place and predominance, we must allow ourselves, or rather we must steadily resolve to secure for ourselves, quietness enough not only to know our own minds, but to listen to the still small voice of conscience, or of God, speaking in our own hearts.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - That which the people called Quakers lay down as a main fundamental in religion is this— That God, through Christ, hath placed a principle in every man, to inform him of his duty, and to enable him to do it; and that those that live up to this principle are the people of God, and those that live in disobedience to it, are not God’s people, whatever name they may bear, or profession they may make of religion. This is their ancient, first, and standing testimony: with this they began, and this they bore, and do bear to the world.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - From the steady opposition which faithful Friends in early times made to wrong things then approved, they were hated and persecuted by men living in the spirit of this world, and suffering with firmness, they were made a blessing to the Church, and the work prospered.
~ John Woolman, 1720-1772
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The moral man is he who is opposed to injustice per se, opposed to injustice wherever he finds it; the moral man looks for injustice first of all in himself.
~ Bayard Rustin, 1912-1987
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - It is not wealth, riches, or the honor of this world that I crave. It is not change of place or outward circumstances that will make me happy, but it is a mind resigned to do the Lord’s will, to follow Him whithersoever He is pleased to lead. This is what I desire more than any earthly gain.
~ Ann Branson, 1808-1892
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is your teacher, the light, obeying it;
there is your condemnation, disobeying it.
If you hearken to the light in you,
it will not allow you to conform to the evil ways,
customs, fashions, delights, and vanities of the world;
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - For the real difference between happiness and joy is that one is grounded in this world, the other in eternity. Happiness cannot encompass suffering and evil. Joy can. Happiness depends on the present. Joy leaps into the future and triumphantly creates a new present out of it.
~ Elise Boulding, 1920-2010
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Give over thine own willing; give over thine own running; give over thine own desiring to know or to be any thing, and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart, and let that grow in thee, and be in thee, and breathe in thee, and act in thee, and thou shalt find by sweet experience that the Lord knows that, and loves and owns that, and will lead it to the inheritance of life, which is his portion.
~ Isaac Penington, 1616-1679
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The one cornerstone of belief upon which the Society of Friends is built is the conviction that God does indeed communicate with each one of the spirits He has made, in a direct and living inbreathing of some measure of the breath of His own Life; that He never leaves Himself without a witness in the heart as well as in the surroundings of man; that the measure of light, life, or grace thus given increases by obedience; and that in order clearly to hear the Divine voice speaking within us we need to be still; to be alone with Him, in the secret place of His Presence; that all flesh should keep silence before Him.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The way of God was ever hated by the world and the powers thereof. Never heed the rough spirits nor the heavy, for their bound is set, and their limit known; but mind the Seed, which hath dominion over all. And forsake not the assembling of yourselves together in which you have found God and his promise and power and blessing amongst you, your understanding opened.
~ Francis Howgill, 1618-1668
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - God should be most where man is least:
So, where is neither church nor priest,
And never rag nor form of creed
To clothe the nakedness of need,–
Where farmer folk in silence meet,–
I turn my bell-unsummoned feet;
I lay the critic’s glass aside,
I tread upon my lettered pride,
And, lowest-seated, testify
To the oneness of humanity;
Confess the universal want,
And share whatever Heaven may grant.
He findeth not who seeks his own,
The soul is lost that’s saved alone.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is but a little thing (like a grain of mustard-seed), a weak thing, a foolish thing, even that which is not (to man’s eye), to overcome all this; and yet in this is the power. And here is the great deceit of man; he looks for a great, manifest power in or upon him to begin with, and doth not see how the power is in the little weak stirrings of life in the heart…
~ Isaac Penington, 1616-1679
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - May we look upon our treasures, and the furniture of our houses, and the garments in which we array ourselves, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions, or not.
~ John Woolman, 1720-1772
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Friends come back from their worship with a new sense of ordination, but not the ordination of human hands. Something has happened in the stillness that makes the heart more tender, more sensitive, more shocked by evil, more dedicated to ideals of life, and more eager to push back the skirts of darkness and to widen the area of light and love.
~ Rufus Jones, 1863-1948
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Is religion subjective? Nay, its soul is in objectivity, in an Other whose Life is our true life, whose Love is our love, whose Joy is our joy, whose Peace is our peace, whose burdens are our burdens, whose Will is our will. Self is emptied into God, and God in-fills it.
~ Thomas Kelly, 1893-1941
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you go, so that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - … my convictions led me to adhere to the sufficiency of the light within us, resting on truth as authority, rather than ‘taking authority for truth.’
~ Lucretia Mott, 1793-1880
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is a spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end.
~ James Nayler, 1616-1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - Being faithful in the little light received, in that light I saw more light; and by it I was taught to trust in God in all my ways, and to consult him to direct my paths.
~ Increase Woodward, 1744-1822
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - The Humble, Meek, Merciful, Just, Pious and Devout Souls, are everywhere of one Religion; and when Death has taken off the Mask, they will know one another, tho’ the divers Liveries they wear here make them Strangers.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - …the more strictly and faithfully every man and woman lives up to the guidance and teaching of this Inward Anointing – and never turns aside to the right hand or left for the precepts and traditions of men – the more instruction and help they afford one another.
~ Elias Hicks, 1748-1830
[full context of this Quaker Quote] - There is that near you, which will guide you; oh! wait for it, and be sure to keep to it…
~ Isaac Penington, 1616-1679
[full context of this Quaker Quote]
