Peter Maurin Quotes & Sayings

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. — Peter Maurin

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

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

The scholars must become workers so the workers may be scholars. — Peter Maurin

Modern society calls the beggar bum and panhandler and gives him the bum's rush. But the Greeks used to say that people in need are the ambassadors of the gods — Peter Maurin

It is impossible to have a healthy and sound society without a proper respect for the soil. — Peter Maurin

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. — Peter Maurin

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

The future will be different if we make the present different. — Peter Maurin

The world would be better off if people tried to become better, And people would become better if they stopped trying to be better off. For when everyone tries to become better off nobody is better off. But when everyone tries to become better everyone is better off. Everybody would be rich if nobody tried to become richer. And nobody would be poor if everybody tried to be the poorest And everybody would be what he ought to be if everybody tried to be what he wants the other fellow to be. — Peter Maurin

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." — Peter Maurin

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. — Peter Maurin